Dang, Sango sure got a lot of hate in that last chapter. I was trying to show she was in the wrong, yeah, but apparently I did so good a job her perspective stopped coming off as sympathetic. Yeesh. Remember to vote!

Pokemon Academy Best Girl Elimination Round is still going strong! Keep those votes coming, a few girls are pulling ahead, but things aren't done just yet! We've still got a good chance of girls getting into the final 5!

Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison, Alcea

KedharS: Yes, Elizabeth really is the biggest victim here. She's just a lovely young lady trying her hardest to have a relationship with her future step-daughter.

ConfusedCradily: She's definitely supposed to come off as in the wrong, but she also raises some valid concerns.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yup, you've pretty much covered it perfectly. But keep in mind that Sango was neglected for a good portion of her childhood and essentially abandoned, left to grow up on her own. It doesn't justify her words, but they aren't coming from a place of reason, rather from a place of pain and hurt from a father who she felt had ignored her one time too many.

DJ Dib Dab: Hm, Val's pokemon? Interesting. Well, she's kind of an outcast like Kate, so I would imagine she'd use a type that would also not seem very cute, or suitable for a proper lady like her classmates. Maybe Dark types?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 248

Sango ran into the cold night air, tears streaming down their cheeks.

How could I have said something so horrible? She sobbed to herself, stumbling across the bricks. I said something I never should have ever said…

She had been angry. Angry and frustrated, and she'd taken it all out on her father and Elizabeth. She had accused him of…

Sango had felt like she was betrayed. She'd wanted to make her father hurt, the way she felt hurt. But that only made her feel worse. He didn't deserve that. And Elizabeth certainly didn't…

Sango's legs were growing heavy and her vision blurred. A shiver ran down her spine. She hadn't realized until now how cold it was. Sango slowed, and wrapped her arms around her body. She was freezing.

"S-s-so c-c-c-cold," Sango shivered, stumbling forward. She landed on a bench, pulling herself up and sititng down on it. Snow was coming down a lot harder now. Sango could see her breath in front of her face, and she curled up into a ball to conserve heat. She continued crying, burying her face in her knees.

I'm sorry daddy… she silently apologized, regretting how far she'd taken things. She was feeling her body go numb. Why did I run this far?

Sango wasn't sure where she was. She didn't see the hotel anywhere. Was she lost? Her body was shivering a lot more now. If Sango was going to spend the night out here, she'd freeze. Her eyelids were heavy.

I'll just rest here for a moment, to recover my strength. And then…

"Sango?" A voice like the chirp of a songbird called echoed across the streets. Sango raised her head wearily, blinking as her eyes adjusted. Elizabeth Skye was running towards her. She stopped in front of the bench, panting, her face flushed red. She was still wearing her vest and her sleeveless blouse and skirt, she hadn't even thrown on a jacket. At least Sango was wearing long sleeves and pants.

"There you are!" The woman sighed in relief, her body relaxing. "Oh, you poor thing! You're chilled to the bone!"

"E-eli…zabeth…?" Sango stuttered. Elizabeth leaned down and wrapped Sango up in her arms, pulling her off of the bench.

"Let's get you somewhere warm," Elizabeth said. She helped Sango down the street, towards the hotel plaza and the steaming hot spring in the center of it. Just seeing the steam was enough to warm Sango's heart.

I was so rude to her… and she still came for me… Sango felt like shit.

Elizabeth led Sango to the edge of the spring, where the hot steam began suffusing the air and driving away the cold. The two sat down, Elizabeth kicking off her high laced boots and removing her socks, dropping her feet down into the water. She let out a refreshing sigh.

Sango shivered, rolling up her pants and taking up her shoes and socks, letting her legs get warmed by the hot spring as well. Her body relaxed as she felt the heat drive away much of the chill. Now that the shock from the cold was wearing off, Sango was feeling uncomfortable for a different reason. She glanced at Elizabeth out of the corner of her eye, and saw that the older woman was looking straight at her. She flinched.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Elizabeth gave her a smile that helped warm her up even more than the water. "You're okay."

"Why did you come after me…?" Sango asked. After I was so rude to you?

"We still haven't had a chance to talk," Elizabeth said. "You seemed so angry earlier that I knew I had to come find you, before you let your relationship with Uboss get even more fractured.

Too late for that, Sango bitterly thought. Her relationship with her dad had been strained for many years now.

"I'm just lucky you stayed close to town," Elizabeth laughed. "It was easy for my little birds to find you. If you had stayed out here all night… let's not think about that, okay?"

"Little birds…?" Sango muttered, confused.

Elizabeth smiled and craned her head, nodding to small Vullaby and Rufflet flying through the air.

"I was scared, so I asked the locals to find a girl, lost and alone in the snow," Elizabeth explained. She held a finger up to her lips and winked at Sango. "Don't tell you dad, though. It's a secret."

A gust rolled over the hot spring, blowing warm air into Sango's face. She sighed, her body relaxing.

"I… I'm sorry," Sango said quietly. "I said a bunch of rude things to you. I… I was so angry, I just…"

"You were afraid that I was replacing your mother?" Elizabeth asked.

"I was young when my mom died," Sango replied. "She was so bright and amazing, and then she was gone. And my dad… he wasn't around, not really. And I… and I…"

Elizabeth turned her gaze from Sango and looked out over the cloudy water.

"Do you think Uboss has forgotten all about your mother, Maya?"

"Of course he has," Sango bitterly replied. "If he still loved her, then he wouldn't be marrying you, now would he?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Oh, it would be nice if it were, but in truth…"

She sighed.

"When the ones we love leave us before our time, we are left with a choice. To move on and find new happiness with someone else, or to settle for the happiness we felt in the past. And true, many people do remain faithful to their loved ones. But those who are able to still keep those precious memories close to their heart, and yet still move on to find happiness elsewhere… the purity of those loves cannot be denied."

Elizabeth looked back to Sango.

"Sango, is there a boy you like?"

Sango let out a yeep, her face turning bright red. And not due to the temperature, either. She lowered her eyes and nodded.

"If the day comes that you find another person you love, and move on to be happy with them, does that mean that the love you feel right now was false?"

Sango paused. She hadn't considered that.

"Some people fall in love many, many times. Some people fall in love only once. For each person, their definition of love is different. That's what I believe, anyway. Your father may love me, but I also know that his love for Maya has not changed, either."

She stared wistfully out over the water.

"It's the same for me, after all."

Sango blinked, staring at Elizabeth in confusion.

"I once had a husband," Elizabeth told her. Sango's eyes widened, and Elizabeth continued, "he was a wonderful man, so full of passion and a lust for life. We met on the first day of university. He sat right down next to me in our archaeology class, and from the moment we saw each other we felt a connection that was electric. We had a good many years of happiness together. But sadly, not as many as I would have liked."

She paused, her voice caught in her throat. Sango saw a tear run down Elizabeth's face as she reminisced.

"We had been exploring the Ruins of Alph," Elizabeth explained. "A very special place in the Johto Region. Due to medical circumstances, I couldn't accompany him… on the expedition he lost his life. There was a cave-in, and… he was gone. Just like that."

A sad smile crossed her face, and she looked up at the dark sky with a glassy expression.

"I love your father, Sango, I truly do. No one has made me feel this way since Alain. But as sure as I can say I love Uboss, I know that I would do anything to spend just one more day with Alain, to see that smile on his face, hear that obnoxious laugh of his that's just a little too loud, have another dinner of mixed spaghetti-o's and alphabet soup in our little trailer because we can't afford anything else…"

Elizabeth shook her head, pulling herself back to the present, and wiped her eyes.

"I'm sure it's the same for your father. No one can replace the ones we love in our hearts. There's only new love, new possibility. Do you understand?"

Sango had been such a fool. She didn't know anything. And yet she'd said all those horrible things to her father and Elizabeth like a spoiled little girl. Sango was the one who wanted to cry.

"I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I shouldn't have… I shouldn't have said those things."

"You were frightened and hurt," Elizabeth told her, her voice gentle and comforting, like a soothing breeze. "It must have been hard, growing up without your mother or father around. Going to sleep alone at night, taking care of food yourself, no one there to help you with your homework, I can only imagine that you felt neglected and abandoned. But even so… do you really think your father didn't want to be there for you? That he didn't care about you?"

Sango sniffled, shaking her head. Of course he did. She didn't really think all those things… but all her pain and hardship had just bubbled out before she could contain it.

"Your father really loves you," Elizabeth said. "Did you know? He has a picture of you in his wallet. You're maybe 7 or 8, and you're sitting on Crest's back with a big smile on your face."

Sango smiled. She remembered that day.

"He always talks about you, you know. He has trouble showing it when he's around you, but he loves you so much. He's told me before, how concerned he is that his absence made you grow up too fast, that you'll end up getting yourself hurt because of your zealousness. He worries about how you're doing in school, if you're making friends, if you're dating boys…"

Elizabeth smiled at her, reaching out to place a hand on Sango's shoulder. Sango let her.

"If he could have been there for you, I know he would have," Elizabeth assured her. "But he believed that what was most important was for you to be taken care of. And working hard was the only way he could do that."

Sango understood. But even so…

"But I suppose that isn't a substitute for having him with you," Elizabeth put words to the ache in Sango's breast. "Being a real family, knowing that when you got home, there would be someone there to see you. That there's someone there who wants to be with you, rather than letters in the mail. I think… both of you are right. If only there could have been some way for him to see you more often back in those days… then things might not have gotten as bad between you as they did."

Elizabeth gasped, removing her hand from Sango's shoulder.

"S-sorry, I-I didn't mean to… I don't actually know anything about how your relationship is, really, so please don't think I'm trying to impose my own views on you two or anything! I just… as an outsider, I thought… that's just what I thought, I mean…"

Sango shook her head.

"No… you're right…" Sango said, tears welling up in her eyes. Elizabeth's expression relaxed, and she smiled at the girl.

"As parents, we want to be there for our children however we can. But sometimes, circumstances don't allow that. We can try our hardest, but in the end, we're only human. There's only so much we can do." Elizabeth's voice was mournful, filled with guilt and regret.

…Parents? Sango turned to look at her, searching her face for clarification. She could see the sadness on the woman's face.

"I… had a daughter," Elizabeth said quietly. "The loveliest little angel in the world. I told you earlier, that I couldn't be with Alain on his expedition… because I was pregnant. And when he died, I had to raise our child the best I could, all on my own. But unlike you, I couldn't leave her at home when I was working. So while I explored the ruins, she would sit happily in our trailer, playing with my pokemon. And as she grew older, she wanted to explore…"

Elizabeth's voice caught in her throat, tears falling down her cheeks. She held her hand over her mouth and stifled a sob.

"She was so curious… so eager… she was just like her father…" Elizabeth cried, shaking her head. "She loved the murals on the walls, so we would let her play on the upper levels, where things were stable. It was safer than getting lost in the forest. My colleagues and I… we would always keep an eye on her… and then one day, she… she…"

Sango's heart went out to the woman.

"Did she… die?" Sango asked quietly. Elizabeth didn't answer for a long time. She just sat there and cried. Sango wasn't sure what to do. This woman was old enough to be her mother, and Sango didn't know how she should reassure her. She reached out a tentative hand towards Elizabeth, but the woman let out of cough and recomposed herself, Sango quickly drawing her hand back.

"No, she… didn't…" Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "Tell me, Sango, do you know about the Unown?"

"Unknown? You mean, like a mystery or something?"

"No, not 'unknown', Unown."

Sango was confused. That sounded like the same word.

"They're a species of pokemon," Elizabeth explained. She reached into the breast pocket of her vest, and withdrew a folded up piece of paper. She showed it to Sango. It was a rubbing of strange shapes, figures like an alphabet, and each with an eye in their center.

"These are the Unown," Elizabeth said. "The walls of the Ruins of Alph are filled with pictures of them. But we had no idea… that they were real. It was just another day, like any other. My daughter was playing with a sliding mural, and then… the Unown came to life. They swirled around and swallowed her, she cried out to me, but I wasn't fast enough. I… I-!"

Elizabeth's voice caught in her throat again.

"…And then she was gone."

"Wh-what happened to her?" Sango asked. As the words escaped her lips, she knew it was a dumb thing to ask.

"I don't know," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "All I know is that I never saw her again. That was over ten years ago. Those ruins… they took my husband. And then my daughter. They took everything from me. But I can't leave them. My husband is gone, but it isn't too late to save my little girl. She's out there, somewhere. I can feel it. I promised her… I told her that if she ever got lost, that I would always, always find her, no matter what. If it takes my whole life, I swear I'll uncover the secret of those ruins, I'll figure out what the Unown did to her, and I'll bring her back to me."

The two sat in silence for another brief time, before Elizabeth turned back to Sango, a shameful smile on her sad face. Her eyes were red and puffy.

"I-I'm sorry, Sango, I didn't mean… Here you are with your problems, and yet… I made this all about myself, I'm so-"

Sango shook her head, and cut her off.

"I'm sorry, I'm so much more sorry!" Sango's lips were quivering and she was fighting back the urge to cry herself. "I was just being selfish, and you… you've been nothing but kind… I'm… I…"

Elizabeth smiled, and sighed with relief.

"When I first met your father, I had grown obsessed with my research. That was well before we started dating. In truth… I resented him, at first. His daughter, the pride of his life, was safe and happy, while I…" she shook her head. "I was so focused on my work I didn't realize that the ruins had taken so much more from me than just my family. I had lost who I was as a person. Uboss, he… saw that in me, I suppose. He showed me that I didn't have to become stuck in the past, that I could accept what I had lost, and move on with what I still had. I had lost my family, but I was still alive. Uboss made me live again, and that's why I fell in love with him. I won't ever stop searching, I promise, but at the same time… I won't forget the precious things that are still with me in this world."

Sango nodded in agreement. She understood what the woman was talking about. The way this woman spoke about Sango's father… the love in her voice… it warmed her as surely as the waters around their feet.

"I do have one last thing to apologize to you for, Sango," Elizabeth said. "The reason that your father didn't tell me about you… it was my fault."

Sango blinked.

"Wh-what do you mean?" She asked.

"When we were first dating… I was scared, and maybe a little jealous. I had my search for my daughter, but for Uboss… you were a tangible part of his life. Something he loved and cherished. I was so afraid, that if we were to meet, that you… that you would reject me, tell me to leave your father alone and stay out of your lives."

Sango felt a twinge of guilt that made her wince. In hindsight that was a perfectly reasonable fear.

"I was afraid that, if you knew about me, your father would be forced to choose between the two of us. And I knew that if that happened… I wasn't the one he was going to choose. Because as much as he loved me… it can't be compared to how much he loved you. And I wasn't ready… to lose him. So I asked him to stay quiet, until… until I was ready. I'm sorry I had him hide our relationship, that wasn't fair to you. But don't blame him, Sango. It's my fault. Because I was too scared to risk losing him."

Sango frowned, Elizabeth's words hitting her like waves of guilt. She looked away, more than a little embarrassed and remorseful.

"It… it's fine," she said. "I mean… you saw how I reacted… so it… it wasn't that unreasonable for you to be afraid of that."

"But even so, I should have trusted Uboss, and I should have trusted you. If we were going to have any sort of relationship, then I needed to show you at least that much respect, don't you think?"

"I don't think… I'm someone who can say anything about respect," Sango replied, staring down at the water. "You were trying to get to know me, and I didn't ever try and afford you the same courtesy. I just wanted you gone. That wasn't fair to you. I should have trusted my dad, I should have tried to see things from his side. But I was so immature I didn't even want to try."

"Sango, I want you to know that I love your father, I want to be with him," Elizabeth said. She turned to Sango and placed her hands on Sango's shoulders, turning her so that she could look the girl in the eye and show how serious she was. "And… I want to get to know you. I can't be a replacement for your mother. And you can't be a replacement for my daughter. But… does that mean you can't accept me for who I am? I love Uboss. And he loves you. That means, to me, you are also something very precious. It may be awkward, and you may be uncomfortable, but… I want to be a part of your lives. Is that okay with you?"

Sango could see the genuine desire glistening in Elizabeth's eyes. She could feel her own eyes getting wet. She wasn't sure what her voice would sound like if she opened her mouth, if she would sob or cry. So she nodded. Elizabeth smiled in relief, and hugged Sango tightly. Sango could feel the woman's breasts press into her, and felt the warmth coming off of the woman's body, even though the air around them was so cold. With nothing left to fight for, she opened herself up to the kind embrace of the woman in front of her, and let herself relax into her tight and motherly hug. Suddenly, Sango felt so very, very tired.

As she dozed off, she could hear Elizabeth humming, a song strangely familiar, and oh, so comforting to her ears.

So it seems that Sango was able to work through her problems with Elizabeth. Sometimes, all it takes is to open yourself up and allow yourself to have a genuine conversation with the other party, so you can let yourself see things from their perspective. Hopefully, this will be the start of a wonderful relationship.