Things at the pokemon academy have been rough and brutal for our characters in the wake of Blake's disappearance. This pain, how sad, it just wasn't worth it. But what else has arisen from this? What other secrets await? What on earth could have happened to Blake?

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile!

We've got a decent amount of girls nominated, but there's always room for more! If there are any other girls you think deserve a chance at the title of Pokemon Academy Best Girl, nominate them here!

Currently Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

Superduderr: She definitely didn't deserve it. You can send an OC if you want, though I can't promise I'll use them.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Interesting theory, basing it on will.

KedharS: Protect her by voting!

Thunder Fire: Dakota's a downright villain sometimes.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 625

The first thing Blake noticed when he opened his eyes was the color black. The sky overhead was dark, like a curtain had been stretched up above, without a single star to be seen. The one interruption in the endless sea of darkness was a silver circle, a moon in this odd night sky, flawless as a mirror, hovering ominously in the center of his vision.

"What the hell just happened?" Was the first thought to cross Blake's mind.

"Why does my back feel so weird?" Was the second.

There was something rough and gritty rubbing Blake in the back. The sensation was almost like lying down on a sandy beach, but what he was feeling wasn't like any sand he'd ever felt before. He sat up, confused, and took another look around now that he was upright. It was sand, after all. He was in a desert, that's what it looked like. Long, billowing dunes of sand as far as the eye could see, raising and dipping on the horizon.

The sand was the color of steel, a muted grey. It was like nothing he'd seen. Curious, he stared down at the strange sand and ran his fingers through it. It was so… it wasn't grainy, it was just… off. Everything felt off. There was something incredibly wrong about all this, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Something tugging at the edge of his mind, screaming at him that this wasn't right at all, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it…

Wait, how the hell did he get here?! Blake sprung to his feet, looking around. More of that strange silvery sand and shadowy sky, as far as the eye could see. There was nothing. He was standing in a desert filled with endless nothing for miles and miles.

Blake fell to his knees and took a deep breath. He could breathe, at least, that was good. What had happened? His memories were such a blur. He remembered… that's right, Sylvia Driscoll! She had asked him to help break into Professor Reinhart's office in order to search for information on those flutes that Ryoko had given them! Then… then he had seen something… that's right, that strange rock, with those letters! They were bizarre symbols and shapes that he hadn't recognized at all, but somehow he had just known what they meant, the words had come to him. But how was that possible? He'd read them without thinking, and then…

A shiver went down his spine. The shadows. The shadows had… grabbed him. Pulled him into the darkness and then there had been nothing… nothing…

He clutched his chest, the scar above his heart burning. As he tried to remember the feeling of being consumed by those shadows, the dull burning sensation in his chest began to fade, replaced by a far more agonizing sensation.

Pain exploded through his skull as he collapsed into the sand, scraping at the bite marks embedded in his forehead. Images were flooding his mind, blurry pictures, memories, countless painful things that flowed around him like a river of the past. Scenes ran by him and he caught barely a glimpse, forgotten as they passed him in the current. Golden eyes, black flames, screams of terror, and his own cries of pain echoing along with them. Those sharp teeth, those words he could barely make out, they were all-!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Blake shouted, the pain overwhelming him and purging the memories from his mind. He saw nothing but blackness for a second, and then this bizarre world returned to the edges of his sight.

And then he saw something else. Something that he had been so caught up in his confusion and search for answers that he had missed earlier, or more specifically, someone.

Sylvia Driscoll, sitting cross-legged in the sand a few feet away from him, studying him with a raised eyebrow.

"Curious, do you always wake up to a mental breakdown? Or is that just a byproduct of this bizarre place?" Sylvia asked, rising to her feet. As she stood, one thing Blake noticed that was odd was the fact that the sand didn't cling to her. Normal sand clung to people when they sat in it, but this strange silver stuff just slid off of her as she got up. Blake shakily rose to his feet and realized that the same was true for him.

"Sylvia, what the hell is this place?!" Blake demanded. This just had to be a trick of hers. She was just the kind of person who would do something like this, whatever the hell "this" was. Sylvia raised her eyebrow again, and it looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

Then, she laughed.

"Me? Why do you think I would have anything to do with this?" She asked.

"This reeks of you," Blake growled, stomping through the sand. "Only you would plot something so crazy as this!"

"Me? This was all you buster," Sylvia rolled her eyes, completely undaunted by the approaching boy. "You're the one who read that tablet, I was just along for the ride! And now look where we are. In some bizarre hell-dimension, which is a hell of a lot more than I'm capable of, although I do appreciate that you thought of me."

Blake ignored her reasonable words, he was too angry to think straight at the moment. She'd done something, he just knew it. "You expect me to believe that? I'm sure this is one of your plans to mess with me, you're the kind of person who conspire to send to wherever the hell on earth this is with some godforsaken trap or something, I just know it!"

The levity in Sylvia's voice disappeared and she narrowed her eyes into a glare. The serious tone in her voice sent a shiver down Blake's spine. "Oh, please, you think this is earth? I thought you were more perceptive than that."

Blake stopped halfway to her, confused. What the hell did she mean by that? Certainly, he'd never encountered sand like this before, but what was that supposed to prove? He looked around at the desert. Certainly, it wasn't normal. But he'd assumed that Sylvia had used some trick with that tablet and teleported him to some far-off country.

But the more he looked around, the more he couldn't help but accept the fact that, wherever they were, something was wrong.

"Ah, that's the look," Sylvia smirked. Not a teasing smirk like she usually wore, but one laced with bitterness and danger. It was unnerving. "See, I woke up a little earlier than you did, Blake, and I took a look around. I figured it out myself in an instant, but it seems you're not as perceptive as I am. But something definitely feels wrong, now doesn't it?"

Sylvia walked over to Blake herself, meeting him halfway. As she got to him, the smirk had vanished, much to his surprise. She looked serious. "You'll understand too, when you figure it out. That wherever the hell we are, we're certainly not anywhere close to earth."

Blake stared at Sylvia like she had said she was from mars. Looking past her, staring at the desert expanse stretching around them for miles in the night, he had no idea what he was supposed to find wrong.

Sylvia sighed. So he wasn't getting it. She'd have to try something else. "Fine, let me show you. You should figure it out from this, if you've got anything in that brain of yours other than an unnatural attraction to danger and stupidity."

"Hey!" Blake growled.

Sylvia raised her hand, and held it in front of his face.

"Take a look at my hand," she said, waving it in front of him. "See anything strange about it?"

"No, it looks just like a normal hand," Blake said, confused.

"Good boy," Sylvia nodded. "And that's odd, don't you think? Your brain right now is telling you that's odd, but it hasn't figured out why."

Blake was right. There was something about seeing Sylvia silhouetted against the night sky like this, surrounded by silver and raising her hand high, that just felt off. But what was it? The closer he looked, the more it started to hurt his scarred head.

Sylvia then curled all but her pointer finger inwards, turning it towards the ground. "Now, what do you see when you look down?"

Blake stared at the bizarre sand beneath their feet.

"The sand?" He said. It wasn't meant to sound like a question, but he had no idea what Sylvia was getting at.

"Anything else?" Sylvia asked. What, did she think he was colorblind?

"It's gray," Blake said, glancing up at her like she was stupid. Sylvia sighed, rubbing her temples with her other hand.

"Not about the sand. What else do you see?" Sylvia asked. "It's right there at our feet, we see it every day."

Blake glanced down for a second time. "It's… our shadows?"

"Exactly, halfway home," Sylvia nodded. "Now, what do you see when you look up?" She turned her finger up towards the sky.

Blake looked up at the curtain of blackness above him.

"It's the night sky," Blake answered. "There aren't any stars, but there's the night and the moon."

"And what about that is odd to you?" Sylvia asked.

Blake knew it was weird, but he didn't know why. He turned to give Sylvia a questioning look. Her only answer was to point at her shadow again, and when Blake saw that his blood went cold. He shot his head up to look at the sky, and then he scanned the sandy dunes around them again. He finally figured out what had felt so off.

"It's not the night sky," Sylvia said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "It's not dark out. We can see each other perfectly, and we're casting shadows. Wherever the hell we are, it's the middle of the day, and the sky is just normally black."

Sylvia reached up and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "So, tell me Blake, you still think we're in Kansas?"

"But that's… how is that even possible?" Blake walked through the sand, not even paying attention to Sylvia at this point. He was still trying to wrap his brain around what he was seeing. That orb up there wasn't the moon, it was some sort of sun, but it wasn't bright at all. And yet there was light. It was like someone had taken a desert and removed all the color from it, dying the sky black, the sun white, and the sand grey, but not changing anything else. That had been what had thrown him.

"That's what you found so weird, wasn't it?" Sylvia called over his shoulder. "Our brains are telling us that the black sky = night, while at the same time processing visual stimuli that would never exist during the night. Creepy, isn't it?"

Blake couldn't deny that, he was about as creeped out as he'd ever been by this crazy world. This crazy world with nothing but sand and black skies.

"That's not the worst of it, either," Sylvia said, catching up with him. "But you wouldn't know that, it was something I figured out while you were asleep."

"While I slept? What happened?" Blake asked, turning to her.

"You were sleeping for about three hours," Sylvia said, tapping the side of her head. "My internal clock is quite accurate. And do you want to know what happened in those three hours, when you were tossing and turning and groaning in pain like the devil himself was after you?"

"Sylvia, if you touched me in any way, I swear to god-"

"Nothing happened," Sylvia stated coldly.

Blake rolled his eyes. "Good, I'm glad you have some self-control. Like I said, if you did anything to me, then I'll-"

"That's not what I meant," Sylvia interrupted. "I meant, nothing happened. For three full hours, nothing happened. That… whatever it is up there?" Sylvia pointed up at the bizarre white moon-sun. "Did move one centimeter. No wind, either. No movement. No signs of life. Just… nothing."

Blake took a moment for that to sink in. He didn't like the picture that his head drew as it did. He swallowed. This was looking to be pretty awful. So whatever this sky was, whatever that sun was, it hadn't changed one bit? It hadn't move at all? What, was there no change between night and day? Was there even time wherever they were?

There were a bunch of questions that popped in Blake's mind, questions that he didn't want to know the answer to.

But there was one that he desperately wanted to answer. How the hell were they supposed to get home?!

He'd been asleep for hours if Sylvia was to be believed, and that meant that in a few more hours, his friends would be waking up and wondering where the hell he was. Unless, of course, time didn't flow the same wherever the hell they were, which, for all Blake knew, was a very real and very frightening possibility.

He missed Aya. She had been right, he should have followed his instincts and stayed with her that night, rather than chase Sylvia on this horrible mission. He reached into his pocket and felt a familiar smooth and reassuring texture touch his fingers. He sighed in relief, and pulled the sky-blue hair ribbon from his pocket.

Just seeing Aya's ribbon made him feel like a part of her was here. Because that's what it was, Aya's ribbon. He'd bought it for her. And he would keep it with him forever, knowing that they would never be apart as long as he had it.

"Well, I'm glad you can find some joy in this situation," Sylvia coldly replied, staring accusingly at him with her sharp eyes. Blake was surprised at her response. He glared back at her and stuffed the ribbon back in his pocket and turned around, headed back for where he had woken up. It wasn't hard to find. Like Sylvia said, there wasn't any wind, everything was exactly where they had left it, the sand still displaced by the imprint of his body and the craters of his feet. This was where he was going to stay. That tablet had spit them out here, after all. If there was any chance of getting back (and he was DAMN WELL SURE GOING TO GET BACK) then he would need to stay here.

"That ribbon, you bought it for Ayame, didn't you?" Sylvia asked, quickly catching up to him. "Precious to you, isn't it?"

"It's none of your business," Blake snarled. He turned away from her. Sylvia was the last person he wanted to spend an eternity in a hellish desert with. Well, Gerard and Val were pretty high on that list too. But right now, Sylvia was who he was stuck with, and thus it was Sylvia who he was pissed off at most.

But of course, it wasn't exactly like he could leave. So when he sat down and lay back in the sand, he wasn't exactly freed from her.

Back against the sand again, Blake realized something else that was noticeably absent. Even though they were in the desert, it wasn't hot out. But it wasn't cold, either. He couldn't feel any difference in temperature at all. It was like the air around him was just a perfect replica of his own internal temperature.

And right now his temperature was rising because he was pissed off. Part of him was pissed off at Sylvia, as it always was, but mainly he was just pissed at the situation itself. It wasn't fair that he was trapped here, that he'd been pulled here by whatever the hell that tablet did. He just wanted to go home, and he had no idea how to do that.

But he knew who was to blame. He let that anger sit with him for quite some time, and then realized he had no idea how long he had been laying there. When he realized that, his anger wasn't able to be restrained. He sprung up, and turned on Sylvia who was leaning back on her hands and absent-mindedly kicking the sand, staring off into the distance. Seeing his movement, she turned and looked at him, curious.

"What's up?" Sylvia asked, raising her eyebrow.

"This is all your fault," Blake hissed.

"We've been over this," Sylvia sighed. "You were the one who read the tablet, not me. That stuff was all gobblety-gook, I didn't-"

Blake lunged across the sand and grabbed her by the collar, flinging her back into the sand and straddling her, desperate to wring her throat.

"…Hey now, no need to be rough," she growled up at him. No innuendos about him mounting her or turning her "rough" statement into even something like "I prefer gentle". This was another thing that was unnerving him. Her attitude.

"You were the one who dragged me out," he growled. "You made me go meet up with you, break into the professor's office, and then you pointed out that tablet! You, you, this was all you! It's thanks to you I'm stuck here!"

"…Well, are you going to choke me, or break my neck?" Sylvia coldly demanded. "Either way, get on with it you little whining brat."

That look in her eye, so cold and dead, Blake couldn't wrap his head around it. What was the matter with her? He expected Sylvia to be all playful and making a huge joke about this, or even, at least, curiously amused by the situation. But she'd been so subdued since they'd got there it was like he was staring at a different person. And he didn't know how to feel about them.

"…That's what I thought," Sylvia sighed. "I understand, Blake. You're angry and scared, because you're trapped somewhere you don't understand, and you don't know how to get home. You're mad at yourself, because you think it's all your fault. I'm just a convenient target for your frustration because I'm me, and I'm here. But really, who are you mad at?"

Blake didn't answer her with words, only a guttural growl. Sylvia reached her hand up, not to strike him, but to caress his cheek. Not even in a flirty or seductive way. She just gently rested her hand against his, letting her body warmth comfort him.

"It's fine," she said. "Hate me, blame me, curse me, whatever makes you feel better. I don't care either way, no worries."

Again, Blake just couldn't understand her at all. But he knew that staying on top of her and holding her collar wasn't helping anyone at all. He slumped back, rolling off her, and collapsed with frustration into the sand.

"Why are you acting like this?" He asked. "You seem rather… calm about the whole thing."

"I'm a very calm person," Sylvia replied, rising to her feet and brushing herself off on reflex, even though the sand wasn't clinging to her at all. She looked around, scanning the scenery.

"That's bullshit," Blake scowled. "You've been anything but calm."

"Does my real self bother you?" Sylvia scoffed, giving him a withering glare. "Would you prefer I act as I often do?"

She cleared her throat, and a coy smile crossed her face. She sashayed over to Blake, draping herself across him.

"Oh, my dear Blake," she purred, walking her fingers up her chest. "Is the reason you read from that tablet because you were looking for some privacy? If you wanted some alone time you could have just asked, no need to trap us together in a hell-dimension…"

Blake could see the playfulness in her eyes wither away as her face turned deadpan.

"I'm assuming you're not into that sort of thing," she calmly replied, getting off of him. "Don't get me wrong, Blake, if it was just me stuck here? I'd be having a blast." She was looking around again, and it was unnerving Blake even more. He sat up, studying her. She was acting almost… predatory. No, maybe like prey? She was wary, that was it. It made sense. They were in a dangerous place, after all, it made sense.

Sylvia glanced back at him, scowling. She walked back and crouched down in front of him, staring him in the eye.

"But you're here, so the rules have changed," she said. "I'm not about to let you get stuck here. I'll get you out, Blake, and that means that I don't have time to be playing around."

Sylvia's ear twitched and her eyes widened imperceptibly. She shot to her feet, whipping her head around.

"What? What is it?" Blake demanded, suddenly worried by her change in demeanor. Sylvia had been acting weird before, now she was acting even more oddly.

"Can't you hear it?" She asked.

"Hear what?" Blake asked. Then he heard it. Or more specifically, felt it. There was a rumble in the ground, something rolling towards them, an earthquake. Movement! There was actual movement here! Sylvia gasped, grabbing Blake and pulling him to his feet.

"What in the actual HELL is going on here?" Sylvia shouted, excitement seeping into her voice in spite of herself. The sand was bulging up as it approached the two of them, something was tunneling through it, and it was heading right for them!

So, a brave new world. What the hell is going on here?! What's coming towards them?! Will they be okay? Will they be able to make their way back home? Or will they be trapped in this odd place… forever?