A brief interlude! The battle will continue, but for now, let's take a momentary break to see what Sylvia wants with Elaina Bishop!

KedharS: Ian is pretty good, yeah, one of the more talented trainers for sure.

Aquahaze675: Well, we'll have to find out.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Unfortunately, I have to admit that Pokemon Conquest is possibly the only supplemental game that I haven't played.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 558

Elaina stood on a razor's edge as Sylvia walked around her room, her eyes jumping from place to place like she was studying Elaina, picking apart everything about her. And Elaina couldn't do anything about it. She felt frozen, not sure how to respond.

"What's the matter, Elaina? Don't have anything to say?" Sylvia asked as she picked through Elaina's collection of manga. "I've gotta say, your room is a lot more normal than I would have thought. Although it's certainly a little… sparse."

Elaina didn't say anything. She was a rather minimalist sort of girl, so she didn't have much. But she wasn't very comfortable with Sylvia Driscoll picking apart her life, either. She just wanted the girl to leave. Everything about this girl was bothering her, and she still had bad memories about her match, too. Luckily she'd been able to keep control, but…

Elaina shook her head. There wasn't much left for her to think about. She just hoped that Sylvia would wear herself out and-

"Hey, girlfriend!" Sylvia popped up right in front of Elaina, Elaina letting out a little yelp and stumbling back, nearly falling on her butt.

"Wh-what is it?" Elaina asked.

"Well, I just love your collection of manga and anime," Sylvia cooed. "And those games of yours? I gotta say, I wouldn't have expected a girl like you to have so many otome games. What, you like seducing cute guys? I suppose there has to be some way for a girl like you to get her rocks off."

Sylvia's eyes scanned over Elaina with an appraising gaze, and she licked her lips, clearly liking what she saw.

"Even with a figure like yours, you must not be getting much action if you're not going to put it out there like you, hiding yourself away in your little room."

Sylvia reached out a hand and ran her finger from Elaina's shoulder down over the curve of her chest, marveling at the girl's voluptuous figure. "My, what I could do with a body like that, you could have boys eating out of the palm of your hand."

Pausing, she quickly shot her finger up to the nose of Alcea's mask, pointing a nailed finger against the cool porcelain.

"A shame about the face, though. I must imagine it's quite a hideous thing, if you need to keep it concealed behind that mask… or maybe I'm wrong? Maybe you've just got the cutest and most beautiful face in the world… I must say, it's a curiosity." Sylvia licked her lips again. "Oh, can I please take off your mask? You know, since we're such good friends now? It's like I'm a kid on Christmas Eve and I just can't wait to unwrap my presents! I wanna see what Santa brought me!"

Sylvia reached out to the sides of Elaina's mask to tug it off, and Elaina finally broke out of her stupor when she saw what the other girl was about to do.

"Get away from me!" She shouted, a powerful blast of wind knocking Sylvia backwards. She landed on her bed, her hair flung wildly. Specter rushed to her side to see if she was hurt, and Elaina gasped in surprise. She hadn't meant to have her blast of wind be that powerful. She moved to check on Sylvia, but before she could Sylvia sat back up, laughing.

"Woooooo! That's a rush!" Sylvia cackled, wiping her forehead. "I'm having all kinds of tingly flashbacks to when you and I fought in the Fall Festival Tournament! You really know how to knock the air out of someone. Which is a rather ironic thought, in and of itself."

Elaina wasn't feeling amused. She just sighed in relief.

"I know you're not a bad girl, in spite of the black leather," Sylvia acknowledged. Elaina glanced down at her current state of dress, her face flushing behind her mask. She was wearing sweatpants and a sweater, her lounging around clothes. Unlike Sylvia, who was dressed to the nines.

Sylvia strolled over and patted Elaina on the shoulder, shaking her head.

"Look, don't worry about it. You're putting up a tough guise, I know what that's like. But really, you're just like everyone else, aren't you?"

Elaina's heart skipped a beat. She wished so badly she could say yes. Yes, she was like everyone else, she was just a girl, a girl who liked video games and manga and cute things, a girl who had crushes and wanted the boy she liked to like her back. A girl who got insecure at the thought that people didn't like her, and would hole herself up in her room out of embarrassment and shame and guilt whenever she hurt somebody.

But she couldn't say yes, because that wasn't all that she was, either.

What Elaina also was was a girl with horrible powers, powers that could hurt people, had hurt people, powers that she couldn't control that made her a danger to the people around her. Powers that made everyone see her for the freak that she was.

So Elaina glanced away, shaking her head.

"I'm not like everyone else," she muttered.

Sylvia shook her head in agreement, her blue eyes twinkling sapphires. "No," she agreed. "No, you're really not."

Elaina winced at that. It was true, but it still stung to hear someone else say.

"You're a freak after all," Sylvia continued, walking back towards Elaina. Elaina bristled, having half a mind to send Sylvia flying across the room again. And not on accident this time.

"Don't call me a-" she growled, but Sylvia cut her off.

"Oh, but don't worry, I don't mind," Sylvia assured her. "I'm a freak, too, you see. You and I share a bit of a bond that way, you see."

Elaina didn't see. She didn't want to see. She didn't want to share a bond, or anything else, with this girl, not after the way that she acted around her. People called Elaina a witch, but Sylvia seemed like the real thing.

"You see, Elaina, you and I are very much the same," Sylvia continued, even though her words were falling on deaf ears. "We both have… talents and abilities that don't come naturally to most people. You have your harmonia, and me, well… I have my own things to offer, as it were."

"You think this thing is some sort of gift?" Elaina snarled.

"It is a gift. It makes you special. And more than that, it's something that people want to make use of. Special people like us… everyone wants a piece."

Elaina narrowed her eyes from behind her mask. Sylvia's smile widened in response.

"That's how things are with you and Gerard, aren't they?" Sylvia asked, raising her eyebrow. Elaina flinched at that. "That's where we're different. You and I… we're skilled. With our talents, everyone out there… they want to exploit us, make use of us. Because we're special, and they're not. And that's what you're doing right now. Being Gerard Alkwest's perfect little weapon."

"I owe Gerard a great debt," Elaina snarled in response. "He's the only one who believed in me, who reached out to me and took care of me! He promised that he could help me control this power, get rid of it, and I-"

"Blah, blah, blah," Sylvia fake-yawned, rolling her eyes. "That's just what you say because you're too afraid to be me."

"What are you-?!" Elaina didn't understand what she meant.

"Deep down inside, I think you know that you're just a tool. You're too afraid to make the decisions for yourself, like I do. I know I'm special. I embrace it, I do what I want. And you could, too. But that comes with consequences. And you're afraid of those consequences, aren't you, Elaina?"

"I-I don't want to hurt anybody," Elaina muttered, shaking her head.

"You don't want to hurt anybody, so you agree to be Gerard's weapon, hurting whoever he points at? Sounds pretty backwards to me," Sylvia said. "You don't want to hurt anyone, then don't hurt anyone. Do what YOU want to do."

"He's helping me control my powers!" Elaina shouted, her hair flying up as another blast of wind filled the room, licking against Sylvia's face.

"…And what a job he's doing," Sylvia murmured, clearly not impressed. She sighed and shook her head, letting go of Elaina and strolling back towards the bed. "Look at you now. So afraid to go outside and live that you're content with being a bird in a cage. I can't imagine a more empty, meaningless life than that. Just doing what you're told, like a good little soldier…"

Sylvia stroked her chin, and smiled, turning back to Elaina.

"Don't worry, I'll be happy to help you," Sylvia assured her. "See, I feel a sort of kinship with you, Elaina. I did from the moment I fought you. Because you're just like how I used to be. Sure, maybe a bit more volatile, a little less sure of yourself, a little more scared, but at the end of the day you're still just a girl doing what she's told, because she doesn't know how to do anything else."

Sylvia shook her head and sighed.

"And that's just not right, if you ask me. Look at you. Wasting away in here, relying on a guy you don't even really like, because you know that as long as you can rely on him, you don't have to confront the truth about what you really are. So you cling to your belief that you can be normal, when really, you could be so much more."

"But I want to be normal!" Elaina cried, clutching desperately at her aching chest. "To not have to put up with this pain, to not have people look at me like I'm a freak-!"

"You don't want to be normal," Sylvia denied, shaking her head. She walked towards Elaina, the dark look in her eyes frightening the girl. "What you want is actually very easy to tell. You want what everyone wants."

Elaina was paralyzed, unable to respond as Sylvia leaned in close, pressing her lips against the girl's ear and whispering a conspiratorial secret.

"You just want to be happy."

Elaina felt like she was a thousand miles away, squinting at an image of herself and Sylvia far off in the distance. What she was saying…

"Don't believe them," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "You'll never be normal."

"I will!" Elaina insisted. "I'll-I'll control this power! Find-find some way to get rid of it! Then… then I can live a normal life, be happy!"

Sylvia paused.

"Well, maybe you will," she admitted. "Maybe you can control that power of yours. Maybe find some way to get rid of it for good, so that you're just Elaina Bishop, the girl without harmonia."

She smiled in a way that made Elaina pale, sending a shiver down her spine.

"But you won't ever be normal. No matter how hard you try, you'll carry around what you've done, what you are, forever. You've become something already, you know. Something different. Something special. And that's okay. Because that makes you better than the people who torment you. The bullies who call you 'monster' because you can do what they can't, the 'normal' people who think that you're a freak… certainly, you could walk among them, pretend to be them, but you'll never really be them. You see, if just one person finds out what you once were… then even if you're 'normal' now, they won't accept you. They'll always, always look at you like the freak you are."

Elaina refused to believe it. That wasn't true! Sylvia, she… she was just… she was just saying those things to confuse her, to torment her! She could live a normal life, she could! Once she got rid of her harmonia, then she would… she could…

Right?

Elaina couldn't find the words to deny Sylvia's painful daggers of logic. She was wrong, she just had to be wrong, but Elaina didn't know how to prove it.

"You see, people like them? The 'normal' people? They just want to use you. Because you're powerful. A weapon they can control. Like Gerard, right?"

Elaina couldn't deny that, either. She knew that whatever Gerard might have felt for her, she was only as useful to him as her harmonia. He didn't really care about her, not in the way that she wanted people to care about her.

"Gerard, the Phantom, people like that, they all think of people like us based on what we can do for them," Sylvia continued. "That's all we are to them. Tools to exploit, to take advantage of. We're either threats that need to be contained, or weapons that need to be used. And that's where I promise, I'm different. You see, Gerard, he had all those plans for you, didn't he?"

Elaina swallowed. More words she couldn't deny.

"He… he wanted me… to fight against Kanone Harker…"

"Exactly," Sylvia nodded, taking a note of that. "He had all those plans, trying to take control of the school, trying to make harmonia out to be something to be despised, and now look where that got him, right? The Phantom is the same way, and so is the Commander, they've all got plans on what they want to do, how they're going to show off how skilled they really are. But see… I'm not much one for that, you know. I just… I just want to do what I want to do."

Sylvia sighed again and sat down on Elaina's bed, crossing one leg over the other as she stared up at the masked girl. She wasn't sure if she was getting anywhere, because she couldn't see what Elaina's face looked like behind the mask. All she could tell from the other girl's body language was that her words had made her freeze up.

"There are two kinds of people in this world," Sylvia said, trying a different kind of tactic. "The people who use others, and the people who get used. And then, there are the anomalies, like me. You get used. That's all you do. People only view you in terms of what they can get from you. But me? I don't use people, and I don't allow people to use me. That's where we're different."

"The Phantom…" Elaina said, not believing what the other girl was saying. "You, he-"

"What, you think I'm going to let him use me, like I'm some mechadoll who can't think for herself?" Sylvia snorted. "No, no, I'm working with him because that's what I want. Not because he's controlling me. All he is, is the exact same kind of scum that Gerard is, trying to use me to get what he wants. Like how Gerard is trying to use you. Because we don't matter to them, beyond how useful we are to them, isn't that right? If you lost your harmonia, do you think Gerard would want anything to do with you ever again?"

"He wouldn't," Elaina said, shaking her head. "But you're wrong… I'm not… he's not… using me. I'm just… working with him, so we can both get what we want, that's all."

Sylvia nodded, but it was a mocking gesture. Elaina could tell by the look on her face that she didn't believe a word.

"And that's why he's the one fighting in the tournament right now, the one in the position of power and authority, and you're the one here, locked up in your little birdcage," Sylvia scoffed. "Oh, yes, I'm sure you're both getting exactly what you want."

"That's…"

"You see, Elaina, I pride myself on being someone who does what I want to do. And because I only do what I want, I do anything that I want. The only fetters I let bind me are the ones I choose. But you, you're held down by far too much. So many chains wrapped around you that you'll never be able to fly free in the sky."

"Even…" Elaina didn't want to say any more, but if she didn't respond to Sylvia, she knew that the words would remain, hanging over her head forever, and she would never be able to cut through them. "Even if what you're saying is true… I would rather be bound in a cage… than hurt anyone else."

"…Even if you could fly free from your cage without hurting anyone?" Sylvia asked. "Or maybe… that desire not to hurt anyone in the first place, that's the real cage that you are bound in…"

Elaina couldn't deny that. She had let go before, and it had felt glorious. So freeing, and yet… no, never again. She couldn't hurt people.

"As long as you keep holding yourself to this 'I don't want to hurt people' dream of yours, then you'll never be truly free," Sylvia told her. "And you'll just continue to be used… and you'll keep hurting people anyway. If you hurt people no matter where you go… then why not be free, like me? Do what you want, instead of what Gerard Alkwest tells you to do?"

Elaina didn't know how to respond to that. She shook her head, not wanting to accept that it was true. There… there had to be a way, for her to be herself and not hurt anybody!

"I know you don't want to accept it," Sylvia said sympathetically. "But you might have to. But don't worry. If you think that you can't be free, then I'll free you. I promise."

The promise given by that smile of Sylvia's didn't make Elaina reassured any more than she had been. It made her feel even more worried, in fact.

"I-I don't understand what you-"

"Don't worry, Elaina, I'm not going to use you for anything," Sylvia assured her, getting up from the bed and walking closer to her. Even though Elaina's harmonia meant that she could have flung Sylvia around the room like a ragdoll if she had wanted to, she still felt pressured by the other girl. She stepped back as Sylvia approached, until she felt her back hit the wall. Sylvia reached out and placed her hand beside Elaina's head, and leaned closer to her, her eyes flashing.

"I'm not one of those schemers, with their plans," Sylvia insisted. "I'm not like Gerard, or the Phantom, or Blake, I'm not going to take advantage of you, or use you for my own ends. All I want is to see another girl in a cage break free and find new life."

Elaina froze. What… what did Sylvia just say?

"What the hell are you talking about?" She growled. She reached out to push Sylvia back, narrowing her eyes, though Sylvia couldn't see it. "How dare you? Blake isn't using me! He-he cares about me! He would never-!"

Sylvia smiled, her eyes shining with a dangerous glint.

"Are you so sure?" She asked. "You don't think that Blake wants anything from you, is that it? That's he's helping you, trying to reach out to you, purely out of the goodness of his heart?"

"Of-of course!" Elaina said. "Why wouldn't he…?"

"But you don't believe it, not deep down," Sylvia said.

Elaina shook her head. She did. She knew that Blake cared about her, and that's why he was helping her. There was no other reason! He wasn't like Gerard, trying to exploit her harmonia! She could see it in his eyes, he honestly cared!

"Blake only wants to help you for his own sake," Sylvia said calmly. "Not because he cares about you. But because there's someone else, that he really cares for, who he wants to help. And helping you, it's just a means to that end."

Elaina swallowed, shaking her head. No, no…

"What do you know about Blake's little sister, Guinevere?" Sylvia asked, licking her lips.

Sylvia's at it again, I see. Girl is just full of trouble. What will come of this, I wonder?