With Samarra let loose on the outside world, let's rewind time to return to Agate Village, and more specifically, check in with Maddi. The last time we saw the poor girl she was struggling after the fight with Eve, and now here she is, finally making her way back to Agate Village and the others. What surprises will she encounter upon her return? We'll have to find out!

The Semi-Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! These are our semi-finalists! Make sure to get those votes in, and choose which of these girls you think should make it to the finals! You can only vote for 3, so make sure to pick your favorites!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Chloe, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Marion, Sango, Vic

KedharS: What do you mean? She has lots of friends now, and she's going to go out and make even more!

Hyphenman: Samarra is definitely a strange one. And she definitely has a lot of issues. Unfortunately, it's not easy to determine how to help her, or what her problems exactly are, or most terrifyingly, how she can be stopped. Is it even possible? As for explaining to her… I don't know if she would even begin to understand, but maybe that's the only way.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 995

Maddi was incredibly drained. How many days had it been since she basked in the peaceful and healing natural beauty of Agate Village? Three days? Four? It definitely felt like four. She was tired from that whole incident with Eve, after already being tired from the incident before that with those two girls, so by the time she and Wes arrived at the hospital in Phenac City she had been just about ready to collapse. She didn't know how long she slept, all she knew was that Wes was all patched up from his gunshot wound when she woke up, and it was late. Early?

Whatever.

There was still a haze of fatigue hanging over her, like her body was drained of strength. For some reason she kept feeling tired, even after a good night's rest. It was a bitter pill to swallow when she realized that this could be one of the side-effects of her harmonia. Didn't that girl Kitty always look tired when she used it? But then Vic and Keya seemed relatively fine…

She didn't want to think about the possibility that this could be her new normal, so she got out of bed and went to go check up on Wes, and practically demanded that they head back to the village if there was nothing left to do in Phenac.

So yes, four days. That's what Maddi decided on as Wes's bike reached the final leg up the mountain trail. Four days since she'd been here. Hopefully everyone was doing fine. She might act like she didn't give a damn about anyone but herself, but the truth was, she was concerned about the others and what might happen if the Children of the Oracles came back. Or if the Phantom attacked. Or Eve…

…You know, there were really too many problems for a group of high schoolers to have to deal with! It was kind of unreal.

She shivered. This wasn't good. There was serious adult stuff that was going on right now, and she didn't know how to deal with it. Professor Decker had been attacked. He was still in critical condition in the hospital, in a medically-induced coma, and the doctors weren't sure if he'd pull through. All because the Phantom had attacked, and that Eve girl…

It was really sinking in, now that she'd had the trip back to think about it. In the hospital she'd been asleep, too tired to really contemplate just how dangerous of a situation she'd been in, but yeah, she'd almost died, huh? And with her harmonia being what it was…

Suddenly, Wes slammed on the brakes, and Maddi nearly flew out of the side car. Thank god she'd thought ahead and worn her seatbelt, or that could have been messy. Just because the road was covered in grass, that didn't mean she wanted to slam into it at 60 miles an hour.

"What's going on?!" She shouted as the engine died down. She could barely see anything through the dirty goggles of his helmet. "Why are we stopping?!"

She pulled her goggles up and saw why Wes had stopped. Standing in the road, walking up the side of the mountain, was…

No, wait. That wasn't a girl, that was-!

"Anabel?!" She sputtered in disbelief. What were they doing here, of all places?! Anabel blinked and turned back, their face brightening up.

"Oh! Madison, right? Or was it Maddi? It's so good to see you!" Anabel skipped over, their eyes shining. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?!" Maddi couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

Anabel took out their phone. "Alden called me the other day, when I told him that I'd finally made it to the Orre Region," they explained. "He said that he was staying in Agate Village, so I could stop on by when I was ready."

"And you decided to walk?" Wes asked incredulously. "Up a mountain?"

"Don't you have a Salamence?" Maddi asked.

"Well, yeah," they laughed sheepishly. "But Bolas needed a break, so I figured I'd walk the rest of the way!"

Anabel took a deep breath, and swooned. "I really got a good feeling from all the nature flowing around here, you know?"

Wes sighed. There were hiking trails, so they didn't need to walk on the main road. But he didn't think that was going to get through to this person. "Okay, miss-"

"Actually, I go by they," Anabel corrected him with a polite smile. "I'm a trainer first, after all, I don't really associate with any gender."

Wes blinked, but didn't have anything to say to that. "So, your name's Anabel, right? And you're Madison's friend?"

"Something along those lines," Anabel nodded, flashing Maddi a smile.

"Great. Well, we were actually headed to Agate Village ourselves if you'd like a ride," he offered, apparently not having learned his lesson about assisting strange people in their travels around Agate Village.

Maddi scowled, but didn't say anything. Even when Anabel graciously thanked him and hopped into her lap. She just scooted to the side and tried to make herself feel as small as possible.

As Wes started up the engine again and headed up the mountain, Maddi tried to relax, but it was rather difficult with Anabel smooshing her. She didn't like company in general, let alone physical contact like this, but she bore with it.

There was also something surprisingly soothing about Anabel, something she couldn't put her finger on. It was like they were exuding this calming presence, just by being close to them. Maddi thought it was because they were getting closer to Agate Village, but the more she focused on that feeling the more she realized it really was coming from Anabel.

She gasped, realizing what was going on. Before, when Anabel and Vic had fought, she'd been a little too tired to really get a good feeling about harmonia from either one of them, even though they both had it. She'd gotten a better sense during Alden's battle with them, but back then she'd also been too worried about Cynthia's condition to really focus on the match.

Now, though, pressed up against them, without distractions, and with her harmonia tempered by whatever the professor had done, she could really get a good feeling of the person's aura now, and they were definitely…

"Interesting" was the word Maddi used to describe what she felt. She hadn't gotten much practice with her harmonia (she'd used it in all of one fight and it had only really been awakened for a couple of days) so maybe this was just normal, but it to her, Anabel's aura gave the feeling of… a geyser. That's what it was. A geyser in the middle of a peaceful spring. On the surface, everything looked tranquil, but underneath there was something bubbling, ready to burst out.

It was a strange feeling.

Suddenly, she felt… a tug? Was that what it was? It was like something was pushing into her, but not physically. Almost… mentally? Emotionally? She couldn't quite understand it.

"Hmm. You're different, Maddi."

She froze when she heard Anabel's voice in her ear. Because of how close they were, she could hear them over the sound of the engine.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"When we met before… you didn't have harmonia, did you? But now you do. I'm curious, how did that happen? I know I got an odd vibe from you, but I didn't expect-"

"It's a long story," Maddi sharply cut them off. She really didn't want to talk about this now, certainly not with a stranger like Anabel. "Sorry, but I don't have the energy to go into detail about it at the moment."

Anabel just shrugged, flashing her a good-natured smile. "It's okay. We're almost there, anyway, it looks like."

They were right on the money, because about a minute later the bike came upon the final turn, leveling out onto the flatlands that made the entrance to Agate Village. Wes parked it beside the village gate, where he kept it so as not to let its fumes run through the town, stepping off and locking it up as Anabel hopped out of the side car.

Maddi, who felt much more drained, slump over the side and nearly face-planted into the grass. They'd gotten an early start that morning so it would still be light out when they got there, but due to the roar of the engine she hadn't been able to get much sleep.

As Wes guided Anabel through the town, they asked a lot of questions, and made him stop at nearly every landmark they arrived at. Because of that, it was practically another hour before they finally made it to Wes's house.

When they got there, Maddi quickly rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't still sleeping.

…Nope, not sleeping. The tent in front of the house had somehow multiplied, and it looked like an entire campsite had been erected right in Wes's front yard. She looked to Wes, confused, but the older man didn't seem to know any more than she did. Anabel, who had no reason to suspect anything was wrong, just followed them patiently up the walk.

Rui was outside at the moment, tending her garden, and she brightened up when she saw her husband and company.

"Wes! You're back! Finally! Madison, you too! You're looking healthy!" She ran over to give him a big hug, and then pulled away to take stalk of Maddi's condition. The black-haired girl looked tired, but definitely in better shape than the last time she'd seen her.

"So I take it your trip to Phenac City was a success, then?" Rui asked hopefully.

Wes and Maddi glanced at each other for a second, neither one entirely comfortable with revealing the full extent of what had transpired on the S.S. Libra. Wes cleared his throat and nodded. "Something like that," he mumbled, and Rui took that answer as good enough.

Then she turned to the newcomer. Her smile faded and she made an unamused look.

"…And you brought a guest, I see," she frowned. She didn't know how she felt about her husband bringing back a pretty girl. Pretty boy? Well, pretty somebody, anyway, and even if she knew he wasn't going to cheat on her, it didn't make her feel better.

"I'm Anabel," Anabel introduced themselves. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. And I'm actually here because the Commander invited me."

Rui blinked. "…The Commander-? Oh! One of Alden's friends! I understand!"

Her expression brightened immediately, but she was still cautious, this time for her daughter's sake. Even worse because she could feel Anabel's harmonia. What was with harmonia users these days? Back in the good old days, that power was incredibly rare. Now including her and her daughter, there were six of them here.

…Wait, no. Seven. There was something different about Maddi now. She'd had her suspicions, but it seemed like she really was a harmonia user. She didn't say a word, though, to either of them, because such matters were private. She just invited them to come in.

"What's with all the tents?" Maddi finally asked, glancing suspiciously over to the tents. There were way too many for the number of people they had in their group. Rui just sighed.

"…We have… some other guests," she admitted.

As soon as she stepped into Rui's house, Maddi regretted her decision. If she thought it was crowded before, there were nearly three times as many people staying with Rui now. Luckily all their stuff was in the tents outside, but as for the people themselves…

She felt like a Wishiwashi in the middle of a school. Ugh.

It didn't help either that a few people were checking up on her to make sure she was okay, either. And not just from her group. Strangers were bad enough, but these were people from the Empress's group that were staying here as well, and a few others from a different group, people she didn't even know. And worst of all was Marion, who hugged her and didn't let go.

She was worse than Cynthia.

"I'm glad you're okay," Callie said, walking over to Maddi. She looked almost as tired as Maddi did, which made sense. It had only been a few days since her surgery and the blood transfusions, and she probably still wasn't at 100%.

"Yeah, when we heard you'd nearly gotten killed fighting against those people, we were really worried about you," Hiromi said. Her daughter, Ayame, also looked concerned, but at least had the decency to not bother Maddi about it.

"Hey, um… it's been kind of a long trip here," Maddi said. "Can I go take a walk, please? Just to clear my thoughts."

She really hoped she wouldn't be stopped by one of the chaperones saying she couldn't go around unaccompanied. Right now, the biggest issue she was facing was the amount of people crowding around her.

Luckily, they let her go without a fuss. For the first time, Maddi was thankful that Anabel was here; they were a good distraction, having attracted some attention from the others, namely Alden. The two of them were chatting like old friends, while Vic watched from the corner giving them the stink-eye out of jealousy.

Maddi sighed and escaped out to fresh air. Some things never changed, apparently.

"So Cynthia's not here then?" Anabel asked, looking around. They were a little disappointed. They liked Cynthia quite a bit, oh well.

"She's just a first-year," Alden said, shrugging his shoulders in exasperation. "No helping it, she couldn't come."

"Still, it's a good thing you're here," Ross said. "We've be wanting to head out to check out Realgam Tower for a while now, but Alden insisted that we wait for you to show up first."

"Oh, really? You waited for little old me?" Anabel asked, grinning. "Why, thank you Alden! But you shouldn't have bothered, I would have been delighted to meet you guys there!"

"It wasn't just that," Alden assured them with a smile. "One of our friends, Callie, she got injured the other day, and it was pretty serious."

Callie blushed sheepishly, averting her eyes.

"The doctor said that we shouldn't take her traveling any time soon," Rui explained. "So we've just been staying back home and giving her time to recuperate. Plus, we needed to wait for my husband and Maddi to get here, as well."

"Well, we're back," Wes said, clearing his throat. "So if you'd like, you can go to Realgam Tower, I won't stop you."

The truth of the matter was, he just wanted to get some of the people out of his house. Like Maddi, he wasn't very good with crowds.

"Don't worry, dad, we'll get out of your hair as soon as Callie's ready to travel," Vic sighed. "Should be fine if we stay another few days, though."

Honestly, she wanted to get back on the road herself. The whole point of this trip had been to scout out the location for the Battle Frontier, but due to one reason or another they'd been unable to make any headway on that front.

"Well, I'm in contact with Scott," Anabel said, fishing their phone out of their pocket, "and he says that he's staying in that area, scouting the place out. So whenever you guys are ready, we can head out there, sound good?"

Alden nodded. "Sounds like a plan." He turned to Rui for confirmation. "Assuming that's okay with you, though, right?"

Rui shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Just as long as Callie's okay." She glanced over at Hiromi. "In the meantime, you guys can hang around here, socialize with the others, sound good?"

"Perfect!" Anabel chirped, throwing their fist in the air. They immediately turned to Alden. "In that case, Alden, let's have a pokemon battle!"

Vic resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Talk about predictable. Sometimes she wondered if that was the only thing Anabel ever thought about.

But to everyone's shock, Alden turned Anabel's offer down. Anabel was more surprised than anyone, though.

"Wh-What? Really? You don't want to battle?" They asked in disbelief. "Come on, Alden! You're the battle maniac! You always want to battle!"

Alden's only response to that was a sheepish smile. "I know, and to be honest, I really do want to fight you," he admitted. For trainers like him and Anabel, a pokemon battle was their way of saying hello. So why wasn't he in the mood right now?

Even he couldn't quite explain it. His pokemon were fully healed and fully rested. The only thing that could come close to explaining the feeling welling up inside him was that his "Sense" was telling him now wasn't a good time to fight. Like he needed to conserve his strength for something else. It was a strange feeling, and not one he liked.

Luckily, there was someone more than happy to take his place.

"What's the matter, Alden? Ain't got the energy for it?" Raizer cackled, shoving his way forward and proudly jamming his thumb into his chest. "Well, you won't have to worry about that with me, that's for sure!"

Anabel raised their eyebrow, intrigued.

"Oh, really?"

"Darn right! I'm just charged with excitement, and I'm sure a match between the two of us will be electrifying, what do you say?!" He demanded, holding up his golden pokeball.

Anabel didn't need to be asked twice. An excited smile twisted its way across their face, and they nodded eagerly.

Maddi, on the other hand, hearing their shouts from outside, picked up the pace and tried to get as far away from the upcoming fight as she possibly could.

Well now, things are returning to relative peace in Agate Village! Now that we've returned to the past, we have a few days of nice tranquility before the Phantom releases Samarra from her prison. Hopefully, our students can enjoy it while they can!