The battle reaches its climax. Will Blake be able to win? Or will Elaina win? Will he get through to her? Everything comes to an end right here!
KedharS: You gotta believe!
Thunder Fire: Probably enjoying the party in her own way, with HER tag team partner from last year.
Aquahaze675: Hopefully the climax will be awesome as well.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 407
"Tara, come back!" Blake said, sending Tara out for her second round.
"You think that we're so easy to defeat just because you've brought us so low?" Elaina asked. "Ayer! Show him that 'weakened' is not the same as 'vanquished'! Use your rock slide!"
"Aerodactyl!" Ayer spread his wings and thumped his tail on the ground, too weakened to fly. A wave of rock and dirt rolled across the battlefield towards Tara, but Tara was ready.
"Snivy!" Tara held her hands up and shot out vines, which each grabbed onto one of the incoming rocks. With a tug, she flung herself into the air, over the wave of rock, soaring over it to attack Ayer from above.
"You thought we wouldn't see that coming?" Elaina scoffed. Tara gasped in shock. Hidden behind the rock slide was Ayer, head raised and focused in on the airborne Snivy, massive energy building up in his giant mouth. "Hyper beam!"
"AEROOOO!" Ayer roared, firing a blast of orange light that was wider than Tara's entire body.
"TARA!" Blake shouted.
"Snivy!" Tara hissed, turning her body. Suspended in midair, she couldn't maneuver out of the way, so what she had to do was attack. Her tail began shining white, and she slammed her iron tail attack down into the hyper beam. Light shot out in all directions as she forced her way through the attack, biting her lip as she tried to withstand the pain. She descended towards Ayer, deflecting the energy with her tail, and smashing it right into the stunned Aerodactyl's throat, knocking him off of his feet and taking the rest of his health. Tara hit the ground hard, injured from taking the hyper beam. She shook, trying to pick herself up off the ground.
"Tara, are you okay?" Blake cried.
"Snivy," Tara said, nodding. She stood up, still shaking, her eyes glowing with excitement.
Elaina held her throat and coughed, finding it difficult to breathe. Her head was searing with pain, but she wasn't feeling the burden that she usually was with her harmonia. Even when fighting against Blake… it was like she was still in control. She caught her breath and righted herself, recalling Ayer to his pokeball.
"Raiver, go!" Elaina shouted, sending out her next pokemon, her Braviary. The bird pokemon emerged, his wings getting cut on the large stones hovering around the field, giving Tara time to fully recover and prepare for the attack.
"Brav!" Raiver squawked, pushing through the pain with help of harmonia and flapping his muscular wings to propel him towards Tara.
"Tara, that Braviary's attacks are really powerful!" Blake advised his Snivy. "Keep your movements careful to make sure he doesn't it you!"
"Snivy," Tara nodded. Raiver flapped his wing and sent blades of wind flying towards Tara, the small pokemon rolling out of the way.
I only have three pokemon left, Blake reasoned, watching Tara with a careful eye. And Elaina still has four. The last two are heavy hitters, but Tara doesn't have a very good advantage against any of her other pokemon, which means that, offensively, it's more like I'm down to only two… I should use Tara to soften up the Braviary, and then switch to Weiss.
"Still dodging around, huh?" Elaina scoffed. "Raiver, use tailwind to increase your speed!"
"Brav!" Raiver nodded. He turned tail and flew to the far end of the field, flapping his wings hard. A powerful blast of wind struck Blake in the face, enhancing Raiver's speed. He shot towards Tara, preparing to attack with a powerful air slash.
"Tara, use leech seed," Blake ordered.
"Snivy!" Tara opened her mouth and spat a small seed that dug into Raiver's chest, sprouting out small green vines. Tara took a slash of wind in the chest and was knocked backwards, rolling around the ground and wincing in pain.
"Tara, are you okay?!" Blake cried.
"Sni…" Tara panted, standing back up, clearly not in very good shape. She was restoring health from the leech seed, but it wasn't enough to heal her up significantly.
"Finish that snake," Elaina ordered, her harmonia flaring up. Raiver's speed increased, and he flew towards Tara, flapping his wings and sending more blades of wind flying straight at the small grass pokemon.
"Tara, counter with leaf tornado!" Blake shouted. Tara held her hands up and created a tornado of wind and razor-sharp leaves that displaced the wind attack, serving as a shield. Blake took that opportunity to recall Tara before she could get hit with another super-effective attack.
"Still running and hiding, huh?" Elaina glowered at him from behind her mask. "It looks like you were lying about being willing to fight me at your full strength, Blake."
"I'm not," Blake said, wiping the blood from his lips. The numbness was starting to wear off, and it was starting to sting now. "I'm just getting started, El-"
"Blake?"
Blake froze, his fingers inches away from Weiss's pokeball. His eyes widened and he slowly turned back, his mouth dropping open in shock.
Ayame was standing behind him, dressed in her gorgeous dress, the color of the iris flowers she loved so much. With the light of the ballroom shining behind her, she looked like an angel. She cradled Blake's Skorupi lovingly in her arms, but the look on her face, illuminated by the stadium lights, was a look of shock and disbelief, with no small amount of concern and fear.
"A-Aya…" Blake sputtered. "What… why are you here?"
"You said that… you were going to talk with her…" Ayame muttered, sounding like she wasn't sure what she was seeing. "But you were taking so long, so I came out to see what was going on…"
Blake could see that Ayame was shivering. Her dress had no sleeves, and her skin was flushed from the cold. She walked closer to him, shaking her head in disbelief.
"What… Blake, what are you doing? Are you… are you fighting her?"
Blake looked desperately back at Elaina, and then turned back to Ayame.
"Aya, I just-"
Ayame shifted the sleeping Skorupi onto one arm, her other hand shooting up and grabbing Blake by the chin. She tilted his face up and pulled his lip down, her eyes widening.
"You're bleeding!" She exclaimed.
"Aya, it's not-"
"You know full well how dangerous it is to fight her!" Ayame cried. "You're going to get yourself hurt! You're already hurt! What were you thinking?!"
"I need to!" Blake responded, shaking free of her hand. He winced, the pain of yelling at the girl he loved stinging more than the wounds on his body did. "Aya, you don't understand! Elaina, she… she needs my help! I need to show her that…" Blake paused and took a deep breath to calm himself down, his voice taking on a more level tone. "I need to show her that it doesn't matter. I don't care that she has harmonia. But no matter how much I tell her that, she won't believe my words. So I… I need to show her that I'll accept her, no matter what."
"But Blake… you could die…" Ayame's voice was so meek and soft, it was nothing like the deep, confident voice that whispered sweet words into his ear so often. She really was scared for him. But… no matter how much he wanted to reassure her, there was nothing he could tell her that wouldn't mean betraying Elaina. And he couldn't do that.
"I'm sorry, Aya," Blake whispered, resisting the urge to cry. "I need to help her. And if fighting her and taking her full strength is the only way I can do that, the only way I can get her to trust me, then that's what I have to do."
Ayame looked at him with wet eyes, her lip quivering. Why couldn't she be the kind of person to shout him down and drag him away from this? Why couldn't she keep him safe? But a part of her knew it was always going to come to this. She had tried so hard to reach Elaina herself, but the girl was too far gone. In the back of her mind, she had expected the day would come when Blake would fight Elaina himself, to try and get through to her. Because that was the boy she fell in love with, the guy who would put himself on the line over and over again just to reach someone who needed his help, even if she didn't want it. It was the part of him that she loved and hated the most.
Was it so wrong? To wish, just this once, that Blake would put his own wellbeing first? That he wouldn't recklessly throw himself into danger for the sake of someone else? Was she such a terrible person for wanting the boy she loved to be safe?
"…Then do it," she said, unable to look him in the eye. Her vision was clouded by tears as she lowered her head in resignation.
"Aya…"
"You have to, right? For her sake…" Aya raised her head slightly and wiped her eyes, staring deeply into Blake's. "Then do it."
Blake didn't say anything, he just nodded to her. He could see the hurt in his eyes and he didn't want to worry, but he didn't have any choice. He needed to keep fighting, in order to get through to Elaina. So that was all he could do, Blake turned back to the battlefield, when suddenly Ayame's arm wrapped around his chest and he felt her pulling him close, his Skorupi rubbing against his back.
"Please come back to me," Ayame whispered out a choked sob. "There's still so much of our future I'm looking forward to. You have to come back, Blake. And then we can go home together. Just you and me, right, Blake? So if you have to fight, please, be careful. I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want to lose you. Elaina is important… but you don't need to die just for her sake. Please… think of yourself a little more. And if that isn't enough… then think about us."
"Yeah, I know," Blake said, reaching up and placing his hand over hers. He nodded. "I know, Aya. I won't let anything happen to me, I promise."
Blake took Ayame's hand and removed it, stepping forward as her arm fell helplessly to her side. She stepped back and hugged Skorupi harder, biting her lip out of concern for her boyfriend. Please be alright… please be alright…
"Are you done now?" Elaina asked. "With your flirting?"
Blake didn't answer, so Elaina pressed on.
"You should have taken her advice, Blake. If you want to safe, then just leave. Just stop this now, before you get hurt."
"I'm not going to leave you, Elaina," Blake replied. "I'm not. So stop with this. It's not going to work. You aren't going to drive me away, Elaina, not until I prove to you that you can trust me!"
Elaina was too hurt by seeing the sweetness between Ayame and Blake to listen. It was like that damn giant of a girl was rubbing their relationship right in her face.
"Weiss, start with a bullet punch," Blake said, sending Weiss out. Weiss's wings fluttered immediately and he flew towards Raiver, raising his pincers and unleashing a barrage of bullet punches. Raiver endured the strikes, and flapped his wings to send a blade of wind at Weiss. "Okay, now use agility to dodge!"
Weiss's speed increased and he dodged to the side, the wind slicing around him. He flew around Raiver and shot towards the bird pokemon, raising his pincers.
"X-scissor," Blake ordered. Weiss brought his pincers down in an x-shaped slash on Raiver's wing, the bird pokemon crying out in pain, falling to the ground. Weiss felt the damage from Ayer slowly recover as he absorbed health from the leech seed Tara had given him. Elaina noticed this as well, much to her irritation. The leech seed was draining the strength out of her Braviary, she could actually feel herself growing weaker each moment, and with harmonia that meant she had a lot to give.
"Raiver!" Elaina shouted. "Use defog!"
Raiver used the boost from the tailwind to dodge Weiss's next attack, flying up and releasing a powerful gust of wind that blew the stealth rocks away, straight towards Weiss. Weiss battered them away and flew towards Raiver, preparing another strike.
I won't keep Raiver in on this, Elaina decided. She would need to switch him out so that he wouldn't end up restoring her opponent's health. Which means that we'll fight like this!
"Raiver, use your full strength, now!"
As Weiss approached, Raiver's muscles flexed and he shot forward, his strength and speed boosted by the tailwind and Elaina's harmonia.
As Weiss hit Raiver directly with another x-scissor, he felt a strike on his torso in return from the pokemon's superpower attack. Weiss cried out in pain and clutched his chest, falling out of the sky and hitting the ground hard. Raiver spun out as well, sliding into the dirt. Raiver rose first, panting, feeling more of his health being drained.
"Raiver, return," Elaina called back Raiver before Weiss could recover enough to catch him with a pursuit attack. Elaina considered her options, and ultimately decided there was only one pokemon she could rely on in this circumstance. "Mukuro, time to try again!"
"Decidueye…" Mukuro emerged from the pokeball and flew through the sky, gliding over the battlefield in preparation to strike.
"Scizor!" Weiss flapped his wings and shot across the ground, quickly joining the Decidueye in the sky, preparing to attack.
"Mukuro, use spirit shackle," Elaina ordered. Mukuro drew back his bow and fired a barrage of ghostly arrows at Weiss, trying to knock him out of the sky. Or, failing that, embed into his shadow below, and seal his movements.
"Weiss, dodge," Blake called. Weiss skillfully evaded the arrows, making sure to keep an eye not just on where the shafts were flying towards him, but also taking care to make sure that when they struck the ground, they didn't pin down his shadow, either.
Elaina watched with a scowl on her face. She knew that his Scizor was a very fast pokemon, and Mukuro probably could not match him in speed. That was why she had switched him out to begin with. She could only hope that her previous pokemon had dealt him enough damage where he would not be able to take Mukuro on in an even fight.
"Weiss, use x-scissor," Blake ordered. Weiss finished closing the distance between himself and Mukuro, raising his pincers to slice at the owl pokemon.
"Now!" Elaina shouted. Before Weiss could strike, Mukuro struck first, hitting Weiss in the jaw with a sucker punch attack that sent the crimson pokemon spiraling. Before Weiss could regain his focus, Mukuro had already disappearing to the shadows with phantom force.
"He's gone!" Elaina gasped.
"So now we're hunting, huh?" Blake said.
"Scizor," Weiss nodded. An arrow shot out from the sky, flying straight at his back. It struck hard, piercing his wing, and Weiss cried out in pain, nearly falling out of the sky. Blake was the one to realize what was happening first.
"Weiss! Return to the ground!" He ordered. Weiss's eye widened as he realized the same thing his trainer did, quickly landing on the ground.
"But Blake, in the air, won't Weiss have more places to escape?" Ayame asked.
"If those were normal arrows, then yeah," Blake agreed. "He would. But the problem is, those attacks are spirit shackle arrows. Which means that if they hit Weiss's shadow, he'll be immobilized. Right now, our speed is all we have going for us. If we're caught, then we won't be able to go anywhere, we'll be a sitting duck. So we need Weiss to stay close to his shadow. Guarding one target is different from two."
"Yeah, that… that makes sense," Ayame nodded.
"The problem is that we can't do anything but wait," Blake said. "If we try to use iron defense to increase our defense, then she'll take the advantage to attack. We need to focus on evasion right now, or we'll lose."
"Good instincts," Elaina replied. "It's an attack from nowhere, from a dimension you can't attack back. And while you can't increase your protective abilities, I can do that all too well!"
Elaina's hair rose with the wind as a tornado surged up around her, her harmonia increasing in power. Blake and Weiss watched the skies, preparing for arrows to rain down upon them.
"…Careless," Elaina spat. "You forgot to fast."
"Weiss!" Blake shouted, understanding her words immediately. "Below-!"
"Too late!" Elaina snarled. Mukuro emerged from Weiss's shadow and hit him in the stomach with a feathered fist imbued with ghostly energy, knocking him into the air.
"Sciz-!" Weiss coughed, clutching his stomach. Mukuro flapped his wings and lunged at Weiss, slamming him into the ground with another blast of ghostly energy.
"Weiss!" Blake exclaimed.
"Sci… zor…" Weiss coughed, struggling up slowly, not enough to get out of the way. Mukuro landed on the ground and raised his wing, a claw of ghostly energy gathering into his feathers. He struck Weiss in the face with the shadow claw, smashing his head into the ground.
Mukuro panted, returning to Elaina's side. His health was still going well, but he was weakened.
"Return," Blake said, recalling Weiss to his pokeball. He clutched his finger around the pokeball until his knuckles were white with the cold. He knew that this was a risk. He hoped that it wouldn't have come to this, but part of him knew that it would. He didn't want to rely on Tara, there was no way she could defeat Mukuro when he'd been able to defeat Weiss. And that left…
"Please, I need your help…" he whispered, reaching down into his bag. He took out a pokeball, and straightened up, throwing it into the air. "Sarah!"
"Sarah!?" Ayame sputtered. "Blake, are you sure?"
Not even a little. But Sarah had the greatest chance of winning, and he wanted to rely on her.
Elaina gasped in surprise, taking a step backwards as the massive Salamence emerged with a roar. She had never seen Blake use this pokemon before. Sweat leaked down her brow and she gulped. Was that… fear?
"Mukuro!" She shouted. "Spirit shackle!"
"Decidueye!" Mukuro drew his bow and fired a spectral arrow at Sarah, hitting the dragon pokemon and digging into her scaly hide.
"SALAMENCE!" Sarah roared in pain. She flapped her wings and barreled towards the Decidueye, flames erupting from her mouth in a long stream at the pokemon.
"Mukuro, dodge," Elaina shouted. Mukuro used the speed of the tailwind to evade the flames, firing more arrows at Sarah.
"Sarah, dragon dance!" Blake ordered. Sarah ignored him, firing another flamethrower attack at Mukuro. That made his blood go cold. Against Kitty, Sarah had been composed. But right now… "Sarah, stop!"
"SALAMENCE!" Draconic energy crackled around Sarah and she raised her claw, slashing into Mukuro with a dragon claw as she shot forward, smashing the owl pokemon into the ground.
"Urgh!" Elaina clutched her chest, feeling the pain her partner was going through. Then, she felt the heat. After slamming Mukuro into the ground, Sarah lit him ablaze with her flamethrower, and then turned and rounded on Elaina. Elaina screamed and fell back, her harmonia feeding off the terror in her gut to grow even stronger.
"Sarah, return," Blake said, raising his pokeball to call back his pokemon. But before he could press the button, Sarah's flying stopped. Her body was immobilized, the light harmlessly bouncing off of her without drawing her back in. "What?!" Blake sputtered in disbelief. Sarah landed on the ground, unable to move forward. She roared and thrashed impotently, but with the shaft of the arrow embedded in her shadow, she was completely pinned.
Mukuro stood, panting, badly burned.
"You think we'll let you get away that easily?" Elaina panted, trying to play off the fear that had just run through her. She rose to her feet, giving a silent thank you to her pokemon for saving her. "This battle… has not ended yet. Mukuro!"
Mukuro's body began glowing green as his overgrow kicked in. He flapped his wings, and a tornado of leaves roared up around Sarah, slicing into her from all sides. Sarah roared in pain and let out another burst of flames from her mouth, and quickly the storm of leaves became a storm of blazing flame. Mukuro flew back and Elaina shielded herself from the heat, stunned.
"Sarah!" Blake cried. Sarah's roars of pain continued from within the pillar of fire, her figure a silhouette within the blaze. Dragons resisted flames, but in her current state, Blake wasn't sure if she would be okay. And while he didn't want her to be injured, he was terrified. He wished that he hadn't sent out Sarah. He thought it would be okay. Elaina had wanted him to fight her at his best, and Sarah was his strongest pokemon.
But in the end, he had been a fool. He had let Sarah's prior good behavior get the better of him, so much so that he had forgotten how she had reacted every time she was near a harmonia user before. She had been gentle with Kitty, but he had put Elaina at serious risk. He was stunned, not even able to move, unsure of what he should do.
"Mukuro, gather as much power as you can, and start firing your arrows," Elaina ordered. Mukuro nodded, and drew back the string of his bow, firing arrow after arrow into the dragon pokemon's hide. Each one he fired, Elaina could see Blake's face twist into a wince. He must have been having his heart ripped to pieces, seeing his pokemon suffering like that. But she needed to do it. She would push that line as far as she could until she crossed it, to see if she even could.
"This can end any time, Blake," she shouted over the inferno, hoping that her voice sounded more determined than it did. "I wasn't expecting that Salamence. It honestly caught me by surprise. That pokemon, she has so much rage and pain within her. I understand how she feels quite well, actually. Did you try to help her? The way you've been trying to help me? If so, it seems you've done a rather poor job of it!"
Blake tried to ignore Elaina's biting words, but he couldn't.
"Just give up on me," Elaina said, resisting the urge to cry. "I'm like her. A wild animal that hurts those around me, causing carnage and pain, without the ability to control myself! And no matter how hard you try, you can't help her, just like you can't help me!"
"That… that's…" Blake clenched his fists, warm blood oozing onto his nails. Elaina's words cut into his heart, memories of his sister flashing through his mind. If what Elaina was saying was true… he had managed to help Kitty, but he couldn't get through to Sarah. She had relapsed just seeing Elaina, and Elaina herself…
"Yes he can!" Ayame shouted, snapping Blake out of his fugue. He turned to her, surprised.
"This is none of your business!" Elaina roared.
"Blake, didn't you tell me yourself!?" Ayame exclaimed, ignoring Elaina and storming over to Blake's side. "You used Sarah against Kitty, and she didn't explode like this! She didn't hurt Kitty, she licked her, isn't that what you said? You got through to her! Before, Sarah would have torn Kitty apart, remember? I saw how Sarah attacked you before, and she doesn't now, right? She's grown! Sure, maybe she's not fully recovered, but… but-! She's getting better! And isn't that enough to give you hope?!"
Blake turned to Sarah, her figure an image of pain within the maelstrom. Finally, she managed to pull herself free out of the shadows binding her, and emerged from the flames, badly burned and filled with arrows.
"Already?!" Elaina gasped, shielding herself from the oncoming attack. But before the flames could engulf her, Mukuro appeared, taking the hit and burying an arrow in Sarah's stomach, taking out the rest of her health. Both pokemon collapsed, unconscious.
Elaina panted, stunned, unbelievably grateful that her pokemon had saved her. She returned Mukuro to his pokeball and turned to Blake, trying to maintain a look of composure as the firestorm died down.
Blake wore a solemn expression on his face as he returned Sarah to her pokeball.
"That was your last trump card, Blake!" Elaina shouted, sending out Raiver, the Braviary spreading his wings and screeching loudly, circling overhead. "All you have left is a weak little Snivy barely clinging to consciousness! GIVE! UP! If you don't stop now, then you'll be done! Don't you understand that?!"
"I told you, I'm not giving up," Blake replied. He sent Tara back out. "We aren't giving up. So come on, Elaina, give it your all. Tara and I aren't going to give in, even if there's no hope of victory. Until you're ready to accept that I'm not going to give up on you, my pokemon and I are going to give this fight everything we have."
"…Fine then." Elaina said. "Raiver. Do it."
"Sorry, Tara," Blake said quietly. Tara looked back at him and smiled, shaking her head.
"Snivy!" Tara turned back to the approaching Braviary. The large bird pokemon spread his wings and flapped hard, summoning a massive hurricane that roared across the battlefield. Tara didn't stand a chance. The wind swallowed her and continued to rage on, right towards Blake. Elaina fell to her knees, drained. She'd given that attack everything she had. Far more than she'd needed to. It was cruel and wrong, to subject Blake to something like that.
But she was just doing what he'd asked.
Blake closed his eyes as he prepared for the winds to engulf him, but something slammed into him from the side, knocking him out of the way as the tornado raged past, dispersing moments later and flinging Tara into the snow.
"Ay-Aya?" Blake grunted. Ayame had set down his Skorupi in the snow and tackled him, knocking him out of the way. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, her eyes clenched tightly shut in a wince.
"You're okay," she sobbed. "You liar. You were about to be in horrible shape… liar… liar!"
"Tara," Blake said, pulling away from Ayame and running to his pokemon's side. As expected, Tara had been knocked out in one hit. Blake glanced up to stare at Elaina, who recalled her Braviary.
"As expected," she muttered, shaking her head. "You couldn't take everything I had, you gave up in the end. That's enough… no more."
"I didn't run!" Blake exclaimed, storming towards her, but Ayame stepped in front of him, holding her arm up.
"Blake, take care of your Skorupi," she said. She glared at Elaina. "Blake put his life on the line to try to get through to you, and you still don't get it? What, did you want to hurt him? Why? If you care about him, and I know you damn well do, why would you want to make him suffer? Just to drive him away? Can't you just accept his kind heart?!"
Her voice cracked.
"No matter how much I wish he would, for his own sake… he won't give up on you. Why can't you just see that?!"
That wasn't the issue. Elaina believed him. She believed him completely, now. He wouldn't give up on her. So she would have to give up on him. Someone like her… someone who would only bring pain to the person she claimed to love… she would only hurt him, again and again. Blake was sacrificing himself for her, but she was the one who would embrace the hurt for his sake.
"It doesn't matter anymore," she muttered, turning and walking off into the night.
So the battle ends with a total defeat of Blake and his team. And in the end, he couldn't get through to her at all. It's painful, but that's where we are, emotionally. Hopefully, he'll be able to get through to her, and Sarah, eventually, but not now.