Alden and Vic have given everything in this fight, and now they've reached the point where they're both down to their last pokemon. And if that wasn't bad enough, Vic has chosen a new title for herself to match with the Commander, calling herself "The Baroness". Will Alden be able to break through to her and bring back the Vic we all know? Or will he be defeated by her and fall under Samarra's influence himself? The battle will come to an end here! Remember to review!
KedharS: Yeah, she's pretty wild. Hopefully Alden will be able to win!
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yup. Scarlet and Violet giving an evolution to Vic's ace Bisharp was just the perfect amount of serendipity.
Hyphenman: Well, she needed some sort of title to match with "The Commander" and "The Baroness" just sounded perfect.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1119
"Kingambit!" Valkyrie charged at Corin, a malevolent black and red aura burning around her. The Baroness's harmonia had grown to such an intense level that it was visible to everyone, even people like Alden who couldn't see it normally.
He could certainly see the effects, though. Valkyrie's strength was awesome. But Corin wouldn't lose in that respect either.
"Aura sphere," Alden ordered. Corin kept light on her feet and formed a sphere of aura, which she fired at the Kingambit. Valkyrie sliced it in half without even stopping, continuing her assault.
"Low sweep," the Baroness ordered. Valkyrie swung low, aiming at Corin's legs to trip her up, and hopefully it would cause enough damage to the Lucario so that she wouldn't be able to move as fast anymore. But Corin jumped over the slash and kicked Valkyrie in the face, aiming precisely. Her blow struck right above the two blades transfixed below her eyes, and right above the long sword jutting out from her forehead. Valkyrie stumbled back while the Baroness rubbed at her eyes in frustration.
"You think that a cute little move like that will give your pokemon the edge? You have no idea what we're capable of!" The Baroness shouted. "Brick break!"
Valkyrie regained her footing and with a roar pushed forward, striking Corin in the chest with her brick break attack. The force of the blow was so powerful it sent a shockwave through the air, the crack in the sky knocking Corin backwards. Corin hit the ground hard and rolled through the mud, unable to pick herself up off the ground for a few moments.
"Oh, no!" Rui gasped.
"This isn't good," Anabel noted with a grim expression.
"Aww, what's the matter? Is Corin too weak to properly fight back?" The Baroness cooed. "Well, too bad! There's nothing either of you can do anymore, this match is over! Valkyrie! Finish that Lucario off, right now!"
"Corin!" Alden shouted. His Lucario struggled to stand, but the Kingambit's foot jammed into her shoulder-blades and forced her back down into the mud. Holding Corin down effortlessly, Valkyrie raised her arm. Ghostly energy swirled around it, taking the form of a sharpened blade. She was prepared to strike the Lucario down, but she held off.
The Baroness smiled triumphantly. "And now you're finished," she promised. "It stings, doesn't it? To try so hard, but have it all be worth nothing in the end? To think that I could get this much power from Samarra… I wonder how much stronger you'll become, once you join us? Ahahaha!"
She threw back her head and laughed like a lunatic, but quickly controlled herself. "Well, there's no sense in dragging this out any longer," she supposed. "Valkyrie! Finish off that Lucario! …But wait. There's something I want to hear you say first."
The Baroness stroked her chin, looking down thoughtfully at Alden. She wore a smirk on her face. "Alden… before this match comes to a close, tell me, how much fun did you have, battling me? Was it the kind of fight that made your 'Sense' shiver?"
She burst out laughing again, relishing the feeling of superiority at finally being stronger than the man she idolized.
"That's enough out of you," Alden snapped. "Victoria, I'm done playing games."
"Pl-Playing games?" The Baroness sputtered. She couldn't understand how he could keep going. She'd won, she'd overwhelmed Corin, and now the Lucario was helpless at her feet. Alden should have been hers now, and yet it was like his indomitable will refused to yield. A shiver ran down her spine. "Sh-Shut up! This isn't a game! This is everything to me, don't you understand?! I've finally surpassed you! All this time, you've been ignoring me, treating me like dirt, but now… now I've finally gotten strong enough to the point where…"
To the point where not even you can ignore me anymore… Those were the words she wanted to shout, but they caught in her throat. Alden was staring right at her, his face hardened with resolve.
"I understand, Victoria," Alden said quietly. The angry expression he wore softened, to the point of tenderness. "I know how strong you really are. Better than anyone. And I know how much of that is due to the strength of your conviction, and your refusal to ever give up when you've set your mind to doing something."
"Th-That's…" she swallowed, shrinking a little under his penetrating gaze. That pure look in his eyes was back, and it was like they were kids again, before any of this had ever happened.
"You keep saying that I don't ever look your way, that I treat you like you don't exist… do you really think that you could hav stood by my side all this time, and I didn't notice at all?" He asked, closing his eyes. "All your pokemon battles, against me, against everyone, I remember them all clearly. The pride when you won, and the frustration when you lost, they're all a part of what makes you an irreplaceable part of my life."
The Baroness' lips began to quiver. "I-I… I'm irreplaceable…?"
He nodded. "You mean a lot to me, Victoria. And that's why I can't lose to you here. Because if I lose this match, then that would mean I'd lose you."
Alden's expression hardened again. "And there's no way I can allow that. I need you to stay by my side, so I'm going to bring you back."
Responding to her trainer's will, a blue aura began to glow around Corin, and she unleashed the energy she'd been storing up inside of her. The burst of her aura threw Valkyrie off her balance and the Kingambit stumbled back. Corin rose to her feet.
"N-No!" The Baroness shouted. She'd been so close. She'd almost won, and yet…
…Does it really matter at this point? Hadn't she finally gotten what she'd always wanted? Alden was finally looking at her. He was seeing her. And not just now. His words… they weren't just hollow platitudes. He wouldn't lie about something like this.
"All this time…" She murmured, tears rolling down her cheeks. Valkyrie was crying as well, the sensation shared through her trainer's harmonia.
Her mind flashed back to all the memories shared between her and Alden. How diligently she took care of him, fought for him, enjoyed herself in his company. All that time, she thought that it was something she did for him out of loyalty and love, simple, small acts that went unappreciated, but she did anyway in the hope that she could make his life a little bit easier. But it turned out, all that time, he had been looking her way all along.
"That's right… because as long as he was with me, that was enough… this… this was what I always wanted, so…" She kept mumbling to herself, her resolve cracking like glass before the might of Alden's Lucario.
"He's getting through to her!" Anabel gasped, unable to believe their eyes. They could see the influence of Samarra starting to wane.
"My little girl…" Rui whimpered, falling to her knees. She was too drained to have the hope to believe. But she could see it as clearly as Anabel.
Maybe if Samarra's influence was something that could be dispelled with some flowery words, this match would have come to an end then and there.
"Is that really enough for you?" Samarra's voice smashed through her crumbling heart like a sledgehammer. "Are you really satisfied just being at his side? Don't you want to make him yours, forever?"
For all her tough talk of being "The Baroness", her heart was too weak to resist the overwhelming power of Samarra. She felt herself weakening and she couldn't stand up to the other woman's control. Samarra pushed all that malevolence into her, and she roared with frustration even as she wept.
"Valkyrie!" The Baroness howled. "End his!"
"Kingambit!" Surging with power, Valkyrie charged at Corin. But Corin had far more power on her side of the field.
"Lucario!" Corin delivered a devastating punch that stopped Valkyrie's assault in its tracks. Then she followed it with another one, and then a third.
"Close combat, Corin! Break through the darkness that's possessed our friend and bring her back to her senses!" Alden shouted.
Corin roared in agreement, her aura getting even brighter until it burned pure white. She continued her close combat, pummeling the enemy pokemon with everything she had while the Baroness clutched the edge of the balcony and struggled to hold on under the assault.
"Alden…" She whimpered helplessly. But her words were meaningless when Samarra was in control of her.
"Metal burst!" Her lips spat out, and Valkyrie summoned every scrap of strength she had, focusing her aura into her body as she withstood the beating. All the power that Corin had delivered through her punches had been stored up, built up, and now she was ready to unleash it back on her foe with a powerful explosion.
"Kingambit!" Valkyrie roared, releasing the energy in a shockwave that consumed the battlefield, engulfing the stadium in a blast of light. When the smoke cleared, Valkyrie was the only thing left standing.
Then Corin blurred into existence behind her.
"Not quite," Alden said, narrowing his eyes. "Finish it, Corin."
"King?!" Valkyrie whirled around, swinging her blade wildly at the Lucario, but she never struck her target.
"Lucario!" Corin clenched her fist and delivered a powerful reversal attack into Valkyrie's solar plexus. The Kingambit coughed in pain, and succumbed, falling forward into the mud. Her armor was tarnished and dirty, and the malevolent aura burning around her disappeared, along with the corruption running through her trainer.
"A-Ah…" Vic sighed as Samarra's influence left her. She lost consciousness and fell forward, tumbling off the balcony.
"Ah!" Rui gasped in horror as her daughter fell, but she didn't need to worry. Corin crossed the battlefield in a flash and held out her arms, gently catching the girl before she hit the ground. Carrying Vic like a princess, she gently set her down beside the battlefield. Alden ran over to check on her with Rui and Anabel.
Vic was fast asleep, her face peaceful and pristine. Then, like the princess of a storybook, her eyes slowly fluttered open as she looked warily up at her friends and family.
"Wh-Wha?" She mumbled in confusion. "What's going on?"
"You're awake," Alden said, smiling. "Good. I'm glad."
"Awake? What… AH!" She gasped, sitting up. Her cheeks were red. "I-I… I didn't show you my shameful appearance by sleeping in front of you, did I, sir?!" She sputtered, glancing down at her body. When she saw what she was wearing, her face turned white, then purple, before finally settling on a crimson blush of shame.
"These-! These clothes?! What am I wearing?!" She didn't remember owning anything this… blatant in her life!
"That's not important right now," Alden said. "The important thing is that you're back now, safe and sound."
Vic blinked. "…Back? Where did I go? And why does my head feel so-"
"Victoria!" Vic didn't get a chance to finish her sentence because her mother leapt onto her, pulling her into a tight hug.
"M-Mom?! Let go of me, I'm fine! What's wrong?!" Her mother was acting like she hadn't seen her in years. What the hell was going on here? Her thoughts were all hazy and she couldn't really remember anything. She looked up at the Commander, her eyes desperately searching his face for an explanation, but found none.
"What happened?" She asked again.
"Oh? Is that an order, Baroness?" Alden asked, cracking his eyebrow. He smirked.
"B-Baroness? What are you talking about?" Vic was starting to panic. She had the distinct feeling that she'd done something incredibly bad. She looked to Anabel, her last hope. "Anabel! You've got to tell me! What's going on?!" She pleaded. "I-I didn't… I didn't do anything… shameful to the Commander, did I?!"
Anabel smiled evenly, then turned and looked away.
"What happened?!" Vic wailed.
It took a few minutes for Vic to be caught up on everything that had happened when she was under the influence of Samarra.
"You should have let me fall and die," she mumbled, curled up into a ball of shame. She couldn't believe she had said and done such rude things to the Commander. Calling herself "The Baroness"?! Fighting him in a pokemon battle in order to… in order to-!
She couldn't even THINK it, she would die of shame. Thank god that she hadn't retained any of those memories.
"So what now?" Anabel asked. "Vic's safe, should we head back to help the others? There's no point in continuing to the top, right?"
They all knew that there was one more trainer at the top of the Battle Tower, the girl who had started all this in the first place.
"The person who I fought… I can't remember it very clearly," Vic admitted. "The battle, anyway. But the girl… I remember her… I think…" She squinted and tried to pull back those faint memories. She could just barely make out the face of the trainer who'd defeated her. "She's… she's Evangeline Moonshadow, from the Research Course."
"…I see," Alden said, stroking his chin. "That makes sense. She was one of the people Gerard said had been turned by Samarra."
"So should we leave her be?" Rui asked. It pained her to leave that girl under the influence of harmonia, but now that her daughter was back, they'd accomplished what they'd set out to do, assuming that the others had all been purified by the distraction group. "I know it seems cruel, but… none of our pokemon are really in any state to fight back, and I don't have the power to heal them up for a second time, unfortunately…"
"OH!" Vic exclaimed, raising her hand frantically. "I-I can do that!"
Alden raised his eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yes!" She said. Her hands were already glowing green. "Please, sir! Let me make up for my disrespectful behavior by at least undoing some of the damage I did to your pokemon, it's the least I could do!"
Alden raised his eyebrow, resisting the urge to burst out laughing at how earnest she was. He was glad to have her back. "…Well, I'll leave it to you, then," he said, turning over his pokeballs to his diligent second in command.
"Sir, yes sir!" She saluted, and got to work healing his pokemon.
Rui sighed, slumping back. While she was relieved that the Commander was going to do the right thing, a part of her couldn't help but admit that she wished he'd be selfish just this once, for the sake of her daughter's safety.
But then, that wasn't really her place. After all, Vic would follow the Commander to the ends of the earth. If he said that he wanted to fight against this Ange girl, then she would be right at his side. That was simply the relationship between the two of them.
While this was happening, Anabel walked up to Alden with a suspicious expression on their face. "So are you really that in the dark?"
"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Alden asked, blinking.
Anabel shot a look Vic's way before turning back to him, lowering their voice. "Do you really have no idea about how Vic feels about you? Somehow, I find that hard to believe."
Alden had left a few critical things out of his explanation to Vic of what had happened while she was under Samarra's control. Namely, everything about Alden's words of acknowledgment of Vic, and how he was always watching her.
It seemed like an odd thing to leave out.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean?" Alden asked, visibly confused. Anabel gave him a blank stare, not sure if they should believe him or not. But before they could press the issue, Vic interrupted them.
"I'm finished!" She said, slumping back. She had to catch her breath. She looked completely drained. When Rui had healed Alden's team, she had been in perfect shape, and it had still taken everything out of her. Vic had just come off the heels of a major battle where she used her harmonia to the fullest, and then restored his team to boot. She looked dead.
"Nicely done," Alden said, walking over. He crouched down beside her and took a towel out of his bag, wiping away the trails of blood from her nose. "I'm lucky that you're always looking out for me, Vic. Thank you for your hard work as always."
Vic's face lit up with glee. A beatific smile spread across her lips at the Commander's acknowledgment, and she sprung to her feet, reinvigorated.
"Of course, sir!" She exclaimed. "I'll do anything to help you!"
Rui laughed with relief, glad that her daughter was alright. Anabel just sighed and shook their head, they were too exhausted themselves to bother with this anymore.
"Now there's only one opponent left to face," Alden said, taking his pokeballs back and clipping them onto his belt. He turned to the elevator, and the party of four headed towards the roof.
Yes! Alden managed to rescue Vic, and brought her back to normal! Now there's only one opponent left to defeat! With his party restored once again, Alden must prepare to face against Ange and her team of Normal type pokemon! Will he be able to defeat her? Or will all his hard work have been for nothing, and they all fall under Samarra's influence once again? The Battle Tower is reaching its conclusion!