The battle has come to a close. Gerard was defeated by the Commander, what will be the result of this exchange? Has Gerard been freed of Samarra's control? If so, how will he react to what's happened so far? Alden needs to figure out what's going on, this issue with Samarra is a serious one. Where will we go now?

EeveeCatlette890: Sorry, but I can't accept your OC at this time.

Guest: Diana is struggling a lot in her own way, I'm sad to say.

KedharS: I guess we examine the aftermath, that's what next.

Jjjdunk1: Yeah, Gerard isn't in the best state, emotionally.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1081

Gerard was the strongest trainer. He knew he was. Or more accurately, he knew that he had to be. If he wasn't the strongest, if he wasn't the best, then he was nothing. Nobody would care about him, nobody would value him, he would be worthless.

And for him, that was the worst thing ever. He had to be the best. But he wasn't a fool. He knew that there were trainers that were stronger than him. He knew that there were opponents that he would never have a chance to defeat.

That knowledge frightened him, it made him feel like he was worthless. So he went to any extreme he could to suppress it, to reassure himself that he WAS the most talented trainer, that he DESERVED to have the admiration of everyone for his hard work and talent.

It was that fear that Samarra had stoked. That need to be the best. It was easy. So easy to make him feel accepted, to make him feel like he belonged, and use that to compel him to do things that even he would find questionable. Maybe he would have baulked if he knew what he would end up doing, but he was too intoxicated by his bond with her to care.

So when all that slipped away, he was left unable to process it.

He stared blankly at his fallen Diancie for a second, unable to realize what had happened. His brain was shutting down as all the connections to Samarra were forcibly severed. It was like someone had exploded fireworks inside his skull.

So of course, he completely collapsed.

"Gerard!" Alden gasped in shock. He recalled the half-dead Corin to her pokeball and ran over to Gerard, kneeling beside him. Rui and the others ran to his side as well, with Rui stopping to look at Diana and use her power to help the injured pokemon.

"Is he okay?!" Chloe asked worriedly, too afraid of what was happening to bother thinking about what had just transpired.

"I don't know, he isn't breathing," Alden said, his face going pale. He might have despised Gerard, but whatever had just happened, it definitely wasn't good.

Maddi, on the other hand, stood back, staring in shock at the fallen student. All that strangeness she had felt from Gerard had evaporated the second Diana fell. As far as her eye could see, he was a completely normal person again.

Then, to everyone's relief, Gerard's eyes slowly opened.

"Ugh… what?" He looked around blearily. Then he realized who was around him and he quickly pushed them away. "What the hell's going on here?!" He demanded, frantically swinging his eyes around the plaza. "What happened?!"

Nobody knew what to say.

"Gerard, uh… you just lost," Chloe mumbled, backing away. She suddenly felt her anxiety start to build up again, and wondered if it was good to tell someone so unhinged that he'd lost a battle he'd nearly broken down over.

"Lost?! What do you mean I lost?!" He roared. "I wasn't… I didn't fight, I just woke up! What are you talking about!?" He had a throbbing headache, even worse than the hangover from the night he'd lost to the Commander in the Phantom Cup. And the Commander was here again?

"Everyone, get back, give him space," Alden said, stepping back and letting Gerard pick himself up. He was still shaking.

"What's going on?" Gerard shouted again, and nobody quite knew how to answer that. Then Gerard spotted Diana, lying unconscious on the ground and being tended to by Rui. "Diana! What the fuck did you do to her?!"

Maddi didn't know what to make of this. The way Gerard was acting, it was like he had no idea what was going on. She still couldn't sense anything wrong with him either. She looked to Rui for clarification, but the other woman seemed just as confused as she was.

"Arrgh, my head," Gerard muttered, cradling his throbbing skull. "Fuck, the fuck did you do to me?" He grumbled.

"What do you remember?" Alden asked. "What's the last thing you can remember?"

"Not being here, that's for sure." Gerard was defensive and hostile, which was nothing new. To Alden, he was reminded of a wounded pokemon lashing out.

"I've healed your Diancie a little," Rui said, stepping back from the injured pokemon. "She should be okay."

Gerard muttered something under his breath and recalled Diana to her pokeball. He turned to Alden with a sour look in his eye.

"I don't remember much," he admitted. "Last thing I remember, my group and I… we were heading up to Mt. Battle."

"Mt. Battle?" Rui gasped in surprise. "But that place shut down years ago, and the property was bought by some corporation in Kalos. The whole place is in ruins, why would you want to go there?"

"I-I don't…" Gerard squinted, trying to remember why the hell they'd gone to that place. But it was like he had awoken from a dream, everything was hazy and trying to think any harder on it just made his brain hurt. "I don't know. I don't even remember if we got there in the first place, or if we did, what the hell is even there."

Rui was troubled. Mt. Battle was private property. If the last thing Gerard remembered was going there…

She remembered what her husband had told her. Wes had called her a few hours ago, and had told her that on his way back to Agate Village he'd come across some students from the Pokemon Academy, students who had told him about some crazy woman who brainwashed their classmates with a touch. He'd never given a location, but the pieces were starting to come together.

"Excuse me, does the name 'Samarra' mean anything to you?" She asked. Gerard blinked, and shook his head.

"No, I've never heard of her before."

"What about your friend? The one who came here with you?"

"Friend?" Gerard snorted, the word practically a slur to his ears. "I think you're mistaken, lady. I don't have friends."

"What are you talking?" Rui scowled. "The black-haired girl!" She turned to where Gabrielle had been standing. But the other girl was gone.

Gabrielle ran through the streets of Phenac City, ignoring the pain in her legs. It was the furthest thing from her mind right now. She was pooling her thoughts together with Samarra to figure out what was going on.

That's twice now, they both thought. First Olivia, then Gerard. Both had lost in pokemon battles, and they had both lost their connection with Samarra. One could be a bizarre coincidence, but a second time proved it.

Samarra could make friends with anyone, just with a touch. Or by defeating them in a pokemon battle. If the hearts of trainers were connected to their pokemon, and could be swayed by her defeating them, then it appeared the inverse held true, which was something she should have expected. A shocking loss was enough to sever their connection.

Well, that wouldn't do. No, that wouldn't do at all. Samarra couldn't maintain her control over the situation if her friends were leaving her. That was why she'd had Gabrielle leave as fast as she did, so that nobody would fight her.

If only she could spread her friendship with a touch. It was so much simpler, touching people. She didn't want to battle them. But unfortunately, that benefit didn't extend to her friends. The problem was, a woman as smart as Samarra knew how unfeasible it was to touch every single person she wanted to befriend. If she wanted more friends, if she wanted everybody to become her friend, then pokemon battles were necessary.

Next time, she would have to win.

But that power, it was curious. Samarra searched the minds of all her friends to see if they'd seen anything like it. She'd accrued so much knowledge from her friends, there had to be something about that strange transformation that the Lucario had undergone, right?

If there was, she didn't know it. And Samarra didn't like not knowing things. She had spent far, far too long trapped that box, prevented from knowing. All the friends she'd made, they'd shared so much knowledge with her, that now she-

Wait! Wait, wait, wait. There it was….

Ayame Toujou.

She focused on her friend Ayame, and her memories. They flashed before her mental eye as she called back to all the things Ayame had seen. The girl had lived a long and interesting life, but it had really blossomed these last six months. She focused on the memories of Blake Harker, her supposed brother. He was intriguing. The brother her family had replaced her with.

But she had quickly lost interest in him. Guinevere was so much more fun to play with. Blake was just a boy.

There was something she'd seen, though… where was it? She scoured every memory, from the passionate heat of their first meeting, to the painful memories she'd locked away, of her broken heart. She even looked at the steamy, intimate memories between the two of them that Ayame kept cozy in that warm place in her mind, which Samarra passed by with an impassive gaze.

Then she found the memory she was looking for. Many weeks ago, it seemed. A battle between Blake, and a girl with a mask that she knew was Elaina. Gerard had known about Elaina, but those memories were lost to her now. She pieced this moment together from what Ayame had to show her.

Ayame had been pounding against a barrier, trying to get to Blake. She sensed the fury and desperation in the girl, but they meant nothing to her. She watched it happen in slow motion. The Minior, beginning to explode. Blake charging into the fray, trying to save Elaina.

And then the Scizor. Oh, yes. That Scizor. She could see it clearly, the way the red pokemon had glowed. The way its body had morphed and shifted, turning into something else.

A smile tugged up at the edges of Samarra's lips, and Gabrielle's lips as well. There it was, what she was looking for.

Once was a coincidence. Twice was something more. That fact was as true for this as it was for the way she lost her friends.

Maybe Blake wasn't just some boy after all. Samarra made her plans. She would become friends with the Commander here. And if, for some reason, she couldn't, or if he ended up not being of any use, then she would use Ayame to get to Blake.

Yes, it all worked out perfectly.

Back with Gerard, things were tense. And more than a little awkward. Gerard tried to piece together what had happened, but even with everyone explaining things to him, there was still a mental block in place.

"So… I really did lose," he muttered, a dark expression crossing his face. "I lost against the Commander again…"

"THAT'S your takeaway from this?" Maddi asked. "You were being possessed by some crazy bitch named Samarra, who influenced you to try and defeat the Commander in a pokemon battle for god knows why, and the fact that you LOST is what you have an issue with? Are you for real here?! THAT'S the problem?!"

Gerard glared at her. "You know nothing," he growled. "Influenced? I doubt that she would have needed to influence me all that strongly to fight the Commander, I'll let you know. I would have been happy to do it if it meant finally defeating him."

"You realize that you ordered your Diancie to attack someone under her influence, right?" Maddi snapped. "What if Corin hadn't gotten there in time? Gabrielle could have gotten hurt, or worse, even killed!"

Her leg throbbed with pain as she thought of her own burns. She wouldn't wish that agony on anyone, not even the scumbag sitting in front of her.

"That… that was wrong," Gerard admitted. "But it doesn't matter. I'm free now. At least, assuming that you're telling me the truth, of course."

Maddi couldn't believe her ears.

"Why would we lie about that?!" She exclaimed. "Are you so jaded that you can't even accept reality at this point?"

"You're not exactly the most reliable people in the world," Gerard snapped. "I don't know how much of this I can trust. The only thing I can trust is my own best judgment, and it's telling me that you're all insane."

"So what, you just teleported to Phenac City and had your Diancie wreck the plaza, and you don't remember why?" Alden couldn't believe the words coming out of his own mouth. And in fairness, Gerard clearly didn't, either. It was obvious he was just desperate.

"Gerard, let me ask you something," Rui said quietly. "Do you know two boys, one named Rafe Crawford, the other going by Dokukage?"

Alden was surprised to hear those names, as were Maddi and Chloe. But no one was more surprised than Gerard, who stared at her in stunned silence.

"Th-That's…" He stammered.

"My husband just called me," Rui said quietly. "That's how I know about this whole Samarra mess. Those two boys came to him for help, because their entire group got brainwashed by her. So I ask you again, do you know who they are?"

Gerard didn't need to answer, it was obvious to everyone that he did. He averted his eyes and slumped over.

"…They're in my group," he finally admitted. He didn't have any memory of what had happened, but if Rui knew that much about his group, then there was a pretty good chance that the rest of their story was true as well.

And the thought of that stung. Because it meant that he really had lost to the Commander again. Even with all that power he'd supposedly obtained, described as like he had harmonia himself, it still hadn't been enough to win.

"Listen, Gerard, I don't like you, you don't like me," Alden said. "And I don't respect you in the slightest. Even if your slimy actions in this battle WERE under the influence of this Samarra, that doesn't change all the other terrible things you've done. You know that as well as I do. You're not some innocent victim."

"I was violated!" Gerard snapped.

But Alden felt differently. It was true that Gerard had probably said and done a lot of things that he never would have done due to this Samarra's influence. But at the same time, a lot of the words that had come out of his lips were things he'd said before.

So to Alden, and Chloe and Maddi as well, the claim of being controlled and influenced fell on three sets of hollow ears.

The Commander could see the big picture, though. He knew that, as terrible of a human being as Gerard was, and how horribly he treated his pokemon, he was still a powerful trainer. And if the story that Rui reported was true, then they would need more powerful trainers on their side. Maddi and Chloe didn't see it yet, or if they did, they were keeping it to themselves. But Alden could see something building up, and it wasn't good.

Even worse than the Phantom, what this Samarra was planning… what she was capable of, it was a frightening thing that he had never had to face before.

At the very least, she had Gabrielle under her influence. It was the only explanation for why she had run away so suddenly when Gerard lost. That was the other thing that he should keep in mind as well. Gerard had lost the battle, and because of that, he was free now.

"We need to be careful," Alden said, coming to a conclusion. "This Samarra, she's dangerous. And while Gerard might not remember why anymore, it's clear that she's targeting us. Or, well, just me. So with that in mind, we have to consider the possibility that she'll be coming to attack us again, with even stronger trainers."

"HEY!" Gerard snapped, enraged at the insinuation that he was weak. But Alden ignored him completely.

"Luckily, we proved that defeating someone controlled by her is able to break though whatever it is that's brainwashing people," Alden assured everyone. "That means that there's still something we can do. We have a way to fight back. So if anyone comes to attack us, then we might have a chance."

"…Unless we lose, of course," Maddi mumbled. Alden looked at her, surprised. Then his face darkened.

"…You have a point," he admitted. "Gerard, you were rambling about how, when you defeated me, that I'd finally 'understand'. I'd finally respect you. So if defeating you snapped you out of your brainwashing, then if I had lost to you…"

He didn't need to finish that line of thinking, they all got the message.

"…So we can't lose then," Maddi said, putting words to what they were all thinking. A grim expression crossed everyone's face.

"The first thing we should do is get back to the others," Alden decided. "We need as many trainers who can fight as possible."

"Actually… I don't think that's the best idea," Rui said quietly, which surprised everyone.

"Why not?" Alden asked, genuinely curious why Rui wouldn't want to go get her daughter.

"Because… I didn't tell you everything that Wes had told me," Rui said.

What else did Wes pass on to his wife? What will that information do? How will it affect the group's decision? What will they do? Will they go back to the Battle Frontier to reunite with the others, or will they go somewhere else? It's a rather motley crew they've assembled now that Gerard has joined the good guys, where will we go from here?