Time to ramp up this battle a little! We started out strong, but can the trainers keep things going? Or will the harmonia on both sides end up hurting someone? Can they remain in control? Hopefully so.

KedharS: I hope so too.

Arcana of the North: I'm glad you like what I'm doing with Nikita!

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to say the least, and the makeup is definitely gone.

Rosealine gold: It might take a little longer, the battles are taking longer than I expected.

Thunder Fire: We'll see.

JoshGamerV: But she's so cute!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 390

"Maria, use poison sting!" Blake ordered.

"Mareanie!" Maria puffed her cheeks up, and spat a rain of poisonous needles at Glitter and Larosa.

"Glitter use misty terrain," Nikita quickly ordered. Glitter held her hands up, pink mist spreading over the battlefield. The poisoned barbs stung her when they pierced her skin, but the poison they were carrying had no effect due to the curing properties of the mist.

"Using misty terrain, Clefairy was able to protect from poison!" Lila cheered. "Misty terrain is like safeguard!"

"Yeah, but she still took the damage from the poison attack," Darla reminded her. Lila shot her a sour look.

"Larosa!" Kitty ordered. Marosa dodged the spray of needles with her agility, darting straight for the other side of the field. The air around her began to heat up, and she fired a heat wave across the battlefield.

"Elaina, don't use your hurricane!" Blake quickly shouted.

"What?! Why not?" Elaina demanded, her harmonia slowing for a second.

"Use it after me!" Blake requested. "Maria, wide guard!"

"Mare!" Maria spread her tentacles out, a wide barrier appearing around both pokemon. The heatwave bounced off the barrier, the hot air dispersing around it.

"Now!" Elaina shouted. Noctre spread her wings, and sent a blast of powerful wind swirling into a tornado the roared across the battlefield.

"Larosa!" Kitty cried.

"Glitter!" Nikita wailed.

Larosa didn't have the time to counter, the hurricane sweeping her up, and then moving forward to engulf glitter as well. The powerful winds were sweeping the mist to the side, and it was all Maria could do to keep from being caught up in the hurricane as well.

The tornado raged across the battlefield, straight for the trainers on the other side.

"Elaina!" Blake grabbed Elaina by the hand, startling her. The raging wind weakened briefly as Elaina's harmonia dipped.

"Blake, what-"

"It's okay," he assured her. "Just take a deep breath."

Is it… can it really be that simple? Elaina turned back to the raging maelstrom and sucked in as much air as she could from behind her mask. She focused on the wind… and the wind died down at the age of the battlefield, seconds away from striking the cowering Nikita and the trembling Kitty.

Glitter hit the ground hard, having been knocked out immediately. Thanks to Kitty's harmonia, Larosa was able to hang on a little longer, the fire pokemon letting out a yelp of pain when she landed, but quickly getting back up onto her feet.

"Hit with that devastating hurricane, Nikita's Clefairy is unable to battle," Lila said, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "That's the first loss of the match…"

"That's right, Lila," Darla noted, "but more importantly, Elaina was able to keep from hurting her opponents with her hurricane!"

It didn't do anything for Darla to add that last bit, but she hoped it would help Elaina be looked on a little more kindly, at least. Darla might not like the girl (and was honestly quite frightened by her) but Elaina seemed to, at least, be making an effort to not be as destructive, and as someone who had grown up as an outcast Darla could empathize with that, even if the circumstances were different.

"Return, Glitter," Nikita said, recalling her Clefairy. "Now, Hammy, go!"

"Grump?" Hammy emerged from his pokeball, tilting his head to the side in confusion. He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be doing here.

Nikita was a little irritated by her pokemon's chronic obliviousness, but she was used to it by this point. "Psybeam!" She ordered.

"Grumpig," Hammy nodded. He turned to the dragon and the black pearl on his belly began glowing with a rainbow light. He fired a rainbow-colored beam of psychic energy right at the Noivern.

"Dark pulse!" Elaina ordered. Noctre opened her mouth and fired a compressed blast of darkness at the approaching psychic move, engulfing it and swallowing the array of colors in a field of inky blackness. The beam continued forward, right for the psychic type, but was met with a swift interruption.

"Growlithe!" Larosa cried, jumping in front of the dark pulse and taking the full brunt of the harmonia-boosted attack, letting out a cry of pain.

"Larosa!" Kitty winced, feeling the pain her partner was going through. It had been her choice in the first place to take the brunt of the attack, but it still stung.

Like this, we're going to lose, Kitty understood, biting her lip. She turned her attention to Elaina. They were both harmonia users… but what a difference in power between the two of them!

"Not… not yet. Right now… I don't think it will help. But… be waiting, Elaina. I'm going to fight you soon enough."

Kitty had told Elaina that, when she confronted her weeks ago. She had wanted to defeat Elaina back then, but more than that, she had wanted to get through to her, to show her that it was possible to use her harmonia to fight without using it to hurt people. But in hindsight, even back then her harmonia was the one controlling the show. Did she really have the confidence to fight Elaina all by herself?

Well, I'm not by myself, she reminded herself. I've got Nikita and my pokemon with me. And that may not be enough… but it's the best we have!

Kitty opened her eyes… and saw that the world around her was frozen.

"Uweh?" Kitty looked around, blinking repeatedly to make sure she wasn't seeing things. But no, there was Nikita, frozen mid-cry. The dark pulse had just hit Larosa, and half of her body was engulfed in darkness.

"UWWWEEEEEHHH?!"

"Hey there!"

Kitty flinched, hearing a voice even though the world around her was frozen. She turned around frantically, not even realizing that the voice was one she recognized until she saw where it had come from.

"Hey there, Kitty!" A perfect double of her was standing behind the trainer box, greeting her with a wave. Her red eyes were dancing with the myriad of colors of harmonia, but other than that she was a perfect replica of the pale girl.

"Am I… am I going crazy?" Kitty asked, rubbing her eyes against her sleeve and taking another look. Nope, time was still frozen, and there was still another version of her standing there. That only left crazy.

"You aren't going crazy," her duplicate assured her.

"That's exactly what a hallucination would tell me if I was going crazy," Kitty replied.

"I'm not a hallucination," her copy laughed. "I mean, I am, but you aren't crazy. I'm just… someone very close to you."

The copy gave her a cute smile and a wink.

"Any guesses?"

"…You're my doppelganger come to kill me and take my place!? Uweeh!" Kitty mewled, backing away. Her duplicate slapped her palm against her face.

"No, I'm you, dummy!" She put her hands on her hips, and flashed a confident smile. "Call me 'Harmonia'!"

Kitty's eyes widened in realization.

"You, you're my…"

Her voice trailed off as her copy nodded, confirming her suspicion.

"Then why, what… what's going on?" Kitty asked, looking around. "Why is… why is time frozen?"

Harmonia smiled.

"…So, this is sort of like a mental breakdown-"

"I knew it!"

"You know that sensation when you're about to be hit by a car and the world around you slows down to let you process? It's kind of like that."

"C-car?" Kitty turned even paler.

"Don't worry, you're fine," Harmonia reassured her. "I just came here to see how you're doing, because we haven't really spoken until now."

Kitty frowned.

"You're… my harmonia?"

Harmonia nodded.

"Then you're the one… who made me do all those bad things?"

Harmonia smiled, and lifted her hand, brushing it over her face. Her hand dropped to reveal a look that sent a shiver down Kitty's spine, a cruel smile and hollow eyes shining with harmonia, what she no doubt looked like when she had fought against her opponents with her harmonia. She shivered.

"This was the form you wanted me to take," Harmonia replied. "How you viewed yourself. But that doesn't have to be who you are!"

Harmonia brushed her hand back, and returned to looking like normal Kitty, even if the eyes of hers weren't Kitty's, even if that smile was that of a different person smiling with her face. It still unnerved the small girl to see her face and not her face, even if Harmonia seemed so kind and sweet. After all… she still remembered what it felt like to lose herself.

"Why am I here?" Kitty asked, her tiny voice barely a whimper.

"Because you're nervous, silly. It's that worry of yours that made you hesitate, and now here I am, ready to help." Harmonia placed her hand over her chest, smiling. It was a Kitty-like smile, almost like looking in a mirror, but not… not quite. "What do you want to do, Kitty? Before, you lost yourself to me, and I became what you wanted. But that wasn't what you wanted, was it?"

"What… what do you mean?" Kitty asked.

"I'm you, Kitty. Just as you can change yourself, I can become whatever you want me to be. I'm just a part of you. Before, you lost yourself, and I was twisted into something dark and cruel. But now, you have the chance to be yourself. I came to you now… because now you can really make that choice, and decide what you want from me."

Harmonia gave Kitty a knowing smile.

"But I already know how you see me, after all, and what you want from me. So don't be afraid. You don't need to be, as long as you're confident that you won't lose yourself again."

Kitty smiled back, remembering Marion's words. She would keep herself in control, keep her emotions level. Not feed into this power of hers that was leeching off of them, growing stronger at the cost of her self-control and mental health.

But even so, I want to win!

Time returned to normal and Harmonia was gone, Kitty's eyes flashing with light as her power surged, connecting back to Larosa and strengthening her.

"Larosa!" Kitty snarled, her hair standing on end as energy coursed through her and into her pokemon. Larosa shook off the dark pulse and howled, charging at the Noivern.

More power… just need to give more, Kitty though, feeling that familiar rush of harmonia overpowering her. But she didn't mind. She let it take control, running through her body and knowing that she wouldn't lose herself, not this time. A thin smile spread across her lips.

Flames burst up around Larosa as she charged at Noctre, her speed increasing even more.

"A direct attack? You think that flame wheel is enough to defeat us?" Elaina growled. Due to the increased gravity, Noctre couldn't escape to the sky, and there was nowhere on the ground she could run. But there was no need to run. She gathered all the strength she had to boost her harmonia, directing it to Noctre. She commanded her Noivern to use the strongest boomburst she could to wipe out that Growlithe.

"NOIVERN!" Noctre howled, firing a compressed sonic blast at Larosa. Kitty could feel her ears begin to ring, and then nothing. Noctre's attack had temporarily deafened her and Larosa. But that was fine. The strength of harmonia was all she needed right now.

"Look at those flames," Lila gasped. "But will it be enough?"

"Those aren't normal flames," Darla gasped, her eyes widening. "That… that's outrage!"

"Outrage?!" Lila gaped. She remembered the last time someone had used outrage against Elaina's pokemon.

Take it all, Larosa. All the rage and hatred and bitterness I have. I'll feed it all to you. And together, we'll use it to overcome our opponents, Kitty assured her partner. Larosa pushed through the boomburst, the sonic attack doing critical damage to her. But it wasn't nearly enough to stop her attack.

What's Kitty doing?! Blake gasped in horror, his eyes widening. The energy her Growlithe was giving off, this amount of power was incredible. Could she have relapsed? Was she not as stable as he had hoped she was? Perhaps it was too early for her to battle again.

"Maria!" Blake shouted. "We need to stop her! Use water pulse!"

"Marea!" Maria nodded. She opened her mouth and fire a blast of compressed water at Larosa. But at the distance she was, and with Larosa's speed, the fire pokemon easily dodged to the side. Maria tried again, this time firing the pulse in a shockwave that spread out across the battlefield. This time the attack hit, but it wasn't doing nearly the damage Blake hoped it would. Kitty's harmonia was blocking out the pain Larosa was no-doubt feeling.

"Is… is Kitty okay?" Sango shakily asked, holding Silver a little tighter to her chest as she stared at her friend. Even from this distance, they could see that Kitty looked like she was about to fall over.

"She'll be fine," Julia assured her. Everyone turned to Julia, surprised. She was the only one smiling, not a trace of concern to be found on her face. Julia turned her grin to her friends, demonstrating how calm she was. "Kitty isn't going to lose here. Not to herself, and not to either of them."

"GROWL!" Larosa howled, slamming into Noctre. The draconic power in her outrage burned through the Noivern, lighting her ablaze with destructive force. Noctre tried to get away, but compared to Larosa's speed it was pointless. The fire pokemon's power was overwhelming, harmonia striking harmonia through the two pokemon.

Elaina clutched her chest, the burning sensation in her gut overpowering her. She could feel the anger and pain coming off of the small girl in waves, Larosa using her trainer's rage as well as her own as fuel to increase her outrage attack even further.

Elaina could feel the flood of emotion coming through her harmonia, and it overwhelmed her nearly knocking her off of her feet.

Noctre hit the ground, letting out one last whimper of pain, falling unconscious.

"That… that was amazing!" Lila gasped. "Kitty's Growlithe defeated Elaina's Noivern!"

"That's the power of dragon moves!" Darla cackled. "What do you think, Lila? Ready to admit that dragons are the best now?"

"…Wasn't it a dragon that just fainted though?" Lila asked.

"…Shut up, Lila," Darla scowled.

"Hah… hah…" Kitty panted, her hearing slowly coming back in the form of a dull ringing in her ears. The flames around Larosa died down and she stumbled back and forth, confused by the aftereffects of her outrage.

"Kitty, are you, um…" Nikita glanced shakily at Kitty, not sure what she should say. With the amount of power Kitty had just used, it was like… did she lose herself to her harmonia again? Nikita thought that everything was okay, but-

"Hm?" Kitty blinked her confusion away, turning to Nikita. She gave her a warm smile. "What do you mean, Nikita? I'm fine."

Nikita gasped, letting out a sigh of relief. Kitty was still Kitty, that smile that was a mixture of friendliness and shyness couldn't belong to anyone else. Nikita relaxed and glanced to Blake. He also seemed to be relieved.

"I won't lose myself again," Kitty assured her friend, turning back to the battlefield with an unusually bold smile on her face. "My pokemon and my friends are counting on me. With them on my side, I won't lose track of what's important! All the pain and anger? I'll use it as fuel for my pokemon, but that's not the same as letting it consume me!"

Kitty slapped her hand against her chest.

"I'm ME! I'm not going to let my harmonia take me over! I'm not like you, so afraid to accept yourself that you'll lash out angrily with that power of yours! You can feel it, right, Elaina? I can feel your harmonia, and that means you can feel mine! So take a good look, and tell me what you see!"

Elaina recalled her Noivern, staring bitterly at Kitty. The warm light emanating off of her was like an insult, the girl was showing off how much more in control of her abilities she was compared to Elaina. Why… it wasn't fair! Why was she able to use her power? Why was she able to resist hurting others… why was she able to have friends!? Why were people gathering around her, even with all of her power, even though she was as much of a freak as Elaina was?

Why… why weren't they gathered around her?

She felt anger surge in her breast. She unclipped a pokeball from her belt and lunged forward, ready to fling it at her opponent, when her arm was stopped by a firm hand clamped around her wrist. Elaina gasped, turning back to Blake, surprised. He had come to her side while she was lost in thought, and had stopped her from lashing out angrily.

"Elaina, listen to what Kitty is telling you," Blake said. He raised his head to look past Elaina, no doubt staring at all the people behind them who were jeering at her, hoping she would lose. "She's trying to help, don't you see?"

"By looking down on me? Mocking me, for not being strong enough to control this power of mine?!" Elaina spat.

"No! She's trying to help you just like I am!" Blake insisted. "She's trying to show you that if she can change, if she can come back, then you can, too!"

"…Then show me," Elaina whispered.

"Huh?"

"If you think that I can come back… if you think that I can be accepted… then show me," Elaina said, her voice practically begging. "Because they won't accept me. They won't see me as anything more than a freak. Even your friends… even they wouldn't accept me. So what's the point? Why should I keep trying, if all I'm destined for is pain? You might have helped her… but how are you going to help me?"

Blake still didn't even know how he could. He got through to Kitty, but that was by showing Kitty how what she was doing was wrong. He had been able to do that because she wasn't as deeply buried in her harmonia as Elaina clearly was. No matter how many times he had insisted that Elaina was wrong, her own experiences kept fighting against that truth.

"I will," Blake insisted. "Please, just… just trust me, Elaina. Let me show you that I can help you, and that you can still have friends, even with that power of yours. I didn't give up on Kitty, and I'm not going to give up on you."

Elaina could see that Blake's eyes were filled with honesty, and she so desperately wanted to believe him. But if she believed him, and she was proven wrong, then…

"Liar," she hissed, shaking herself free. She turned back to Kitty. "Mukuro, go!"

Blake winced in pain, the sadness in her voice stinging his chest. He shook his head, knowing that there wasn't anything he could do right now. He turned his attention back to the battle as Elaina's Decidueye emerged from his pokeball.

The battle continues, and the harmonia is intensifying! Will both girls make it through without losing their grip on themselves?