With this horrible revelation that Blake and Sylvia have been trapped in this world for over two years, how is Blake going to respond to this? He's been trying so hard, hoping so badly that he could get home, but now it turns out that it's all for nothing. How terrible… even if they do get back, will the world they left be the same?

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!

The votes for the Elimination Round have begun to pick up, that's pretty good! Hope we can start getting them to role in! I've been very surprised by the results of this poll so far, some people are leading that I never would have expected, and some people are trailing behind who I thought would be frontrunners. Just goes to show how much things have changed since last year!

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

KedharS: Sylvia doesn't joke about stuff like this.

Aquahaze675: No comment.

Thunder Fire: It's complicated.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Blake is still technically 16. Time doesn't pass in here for people, after all, so he and Sylvia won't age.

JoshGamerV: Sylvia's internal clock is unfortunately as perfect as she claims it is. They have been in that world for as long as she said they have, one second at a time.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 640

Blake was numb, slogging through the black water and making his way up the stairs.

Sylvia's torch lit the way, but for Blake, the chamber was bathed in darkness. He walked forward, unsure of where he was going, or why.

Two years.

It sounded so short, saying it like that.

But two years was unbelievably long.

I can't believe this… even now, it's like… I just saw Aya days ago… I can still see her face so clearly in my mind… Two years? I haven't seen her for more than two years? Blake felt his heart break. He reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew his ribbon, clutching it tightly. I abandoned her… for two whole years… I promised her that I would never hurt her. But I hurt her for so long… it's like time never passed for me, but for her? Two whole years?

Tears rolled down his face and disappeared on the stones as he walked forward. Aya… I'm so sorry… Please forgive me. I'm sorry… I made you wait so long… but I won't let you wait any longer. I'll make it back. I promise.

"What's this now?"

Sylvia's voice called out and pulled Blake out of his fugue. Blake raised his head in surprise and stared up at Valdette, who was sitting on the stairs, looking glumly down at the two of them. He could see the disappointment in her eyes.

Sylvia didn't pay her any further mind. She kept walking forward, maybe calling the girl's bluff to see if she would attack. But Valdette did nothing. She let Sylvia pass by, even though Blake saw the pale girl wince in disappointment as Sylvia passed.

Blake understood Sylvia's purpose, she had nothing further to say to Valdette. As far as Blake could tell, she was more interested with going to the forest.

It made sense, after all. She had directly stated that she didn't care what happened to her, as long as she could get him home. She was going to risk sleeping forever in order to have the chance to rescue him from this place.

That was why Blake trusted her when she told him it had been two years. It was hard to argue with that level of dedication.

He could try to protest, tell her that this wasn't what he wanted, that he didn't want her to put her life at risk. He'd done that several times.

So why wasn't he saying that now? Begging her to just give up on such a suicide mission, telling her that there was no point in this foolishness? That he didn't want her to get hurt or killed, to fall into a deep sleep?

He knew the answer to that question, of course. It was because he was such a miserable, pathetic, horrible person.

He had refused to treat Sylvia as a tool to use for getting home until a way back became a certainty; now that there was the possibility, and it came to choosing between getting home and Sylvia's safety, Blake wasn't so sure.

No, he was sure. He wanted to go home. And that's why he wasn't stopping her. That's why he wasn't going to go into that forest himself; because he knew that it would be the end of him if he did. All his instincts screamed it, just the very idea of entering that forest made his head hurt. But Sylvia? He was going to let Sylvia go without saying one word of protest.

That was how Blake knew he was a horrible person.

And seeing Valdette sitting there, staring hopefully up at him with those shining golden eyes of hers, Blake couldn't bring himself to let her down.

He sat down beside her, staring down into the black pit. The walk down had seemed so easy. But that darkness below had swallowed him whole. And now, the person who walked out of the Sacred Chamber wasn't the same one who came in.

"I'm sorry," Valdette said. "I can feel it… so much pain… are you okay? You feel… cracked, and broken. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Blake shook his head, smiling coldly. "I'm sorry, but even though half of me wishes that you would sink those fangs of yours into my neck again and eat all this sadness in me right up, I don't think that's such a good idea."

"I can still-"

"I don't want you to," Blake corrected himself, Valdette's words meaningless to his ears. He raised his head and turned to look her in the eyes. Her eyes were pure and curious, and glowing with goodness. He wondered what she saw in his eyes. Nothing good, he imagined. The further Sylvia departed from him, the darker and darker the chamber became.

Soon, it was plunged into blackness. Valdette's eyes were the only traces of light that remained in the stairwell.

"Valdette… Sylvia and I, we have to go," Blake said quietly. "You know that, don't you? That's why you waited here for us, isn't it? To try and convince us one last time? Or… was it because you wanted to see us, one last time?"

Valdette nodded. "I wanted… to see you," she admitted. "I know… I know you have to go to the forest, Blake, I know you do. Because you want to go home. I've felt that radiating off of you from the moment we meant."

She turned to Blake. Blake could see black tears glistening in the glow of her golden eyes.

"I want you to go home," Valdette said. "I know how much you want to go home. And I understand why. The world you've described, it sounds so wonderful. But… the only way that you can go home is to go into the forest. And if you go into the forest, then you'll never come back… and I don't want that to happen. I don't want you to sleep…"

"It's insidious," Blake scowled, shaking his head. He loathed that the forest was like this, that they couldn't get home without something this risky.

Valdette stared at him, confused. "What's 'insidious'?" She asked.

"It means evil," Blake sighed. "What I mean is that this is an evil method. Put the way that we can get home within a forest that we can't enter without falling into a perpetual sleep… telling us 'sure, you can try to get home if you like. But you probably won't make it back if you do' and making us then have to choose between that, and between staying here forever… wandering through that desert, or waiting here, at the edge of the forest, knowing that our way home is forever out of our reach. However designed this place… was sadistic."

"That would be the Traveler," Valdette said automatically. Then, she gasped. Blake turned to look at her suspiciously.

"What do you mean by that?" He demanded.

"I-I don't remember!" Valdette said, her face going even paler. "But… I do know that the forest… wasn't always like this."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked, standing up. "What is it? What does this 'Traveler' have to do with everything?! Please, Valdette, if you know something, anything, then we might be able to figure something out! We might be able to stop Sylvia!"

"R-Really?" Valdette asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Sylvia's a genius," Blake said. "She can do anything given time. Trust me, if there's anything you're hiding from us, you need to tell her. It could be the piece that she's missing! A way to get us back home without having to rely on setting one foot into the forest!"

"O-Oh! Okay!" Valdette said, standing up as well. She was radiating eagerness. "But… I can't say a lot. The other Valdette would know more…"

"Then let's go find them!" Blake cried excitedly. His earlier despair was being overwhelmed by his drive to get home. Now he had a plan, he had something he could think of that would get them back. Hopefully. It wasn't much, but it was a chance. He turned, and ran up the stairs as best as he could without being able to see where he was going. "Come on, Valdette! We need to catch up with Sylvia as fast as we can!"

"R-Right!" Valdette called behind him, running after Blake as fast as she could. She was feeling a little hopeful herself. Maybe these would be a pair of humans that they could get back? Maybe Blake and Sylvia wouldn't be lost to the forest…

Those were the thoughts that carried Valdette forward, the hope that kept her going. She'd seen so many humans go and never come back, that she'd given up hope. But something about Blake convinced her that maybe this time would work out.

"Sylvia… you must be very close to her," Valdette observed quietly. "I feel a lot of trust coming from you, towards her. To believe in her so absolutely… you must be very good friends with her. That's the word, right? Friend? I learned it from the Traveler, when I saw her last…"

"I don't know if you know what that word means," Blake laughed, shaking his head. "No, we aren't friends, and we aren't particularly close. In fact, I used to hate her not that long ago…" His voice trailed off. "…Actually, I suppose it was a lot longer than it feels, now wasn't it? Now that I think of it, I suppose that I've actually been more positively inclined to her a longer than I've hated her, even if it doesn't feel that way."

He let out a rueful laugh. "That's quite a surprise. But I would never call us friends, she's not someone it's possible to be friends with." Blake stopped and turned to Valdette's glowing eyes. They were getting closer to the surface, and he could make out more of her features. "Speaking of time… you mentioned the Traveler. You've spoken to her? How long ago was that?"

Valdette scrunched her face up in thought. "…What does 'long ago' mean?"

Right. The Valdette and Valetty didn't have the same concept of time as Blake and Sylvia would have. Their memories were all kinds of jumbled, he wondered if they could even conceive of something like time in this world where nobody aged.

I guess I'm living proof that memory and the passage of time aren't exactly things to have faith in here, he bitterly noted. He sighed. "Tell me about her, if you can? I assume you've met her before, considering what you said."

"She's amazing," Valdette sighed wistfully. "Her emotions… she has so much depth to her, it's impossible to explain. I don't think you'd get it. But even though she's amazing… she still talks to Valetty like us… or, I mean… never mind. Guess I'm still getting used to being a Valdette," she laughed sheepishly. "But she knows all sorts of things, from her travels… she teaches us all sorts of interesting words, human words."

"Like 'friend'," Blake laughed.

Friend. That was a word that made Blake feel odd. His thoughts were focused elsewhere, but no less optimistic when it came to his friends. And someone who was more than that. Now that he had somewhere to look forward… a goal at hand… she could stop focusing on the pain and loss he felt, at having missed that time with Aya.

Forgive me, Aya, he apologized. It won't be long now. I don't know if you've waited this long… or if you've already given up on me… but I promise. I'm still alive. And even if it takes another two years, another ten years, I'm coming back to you. I promise.

"Who is 'Aya'?" Valdette asked quietly. Blake froze, whirling around in surprise. The exit from the cave was above them, he could see the sliver of light poking through, illuminating Valdette's confused face. Blake felt incredibly confused himself. What she'd just said… talking about Aya… how would she know that name?

"You… how do you know that name?" Blake demanded, Valdette gasping in surprise. Blake brought himself back down. He hadn't meant to explode like that. He was just in a rather… passionate frame of mind right now. His mood wasn't exactly stable.

Now that I think about it… this is probably tied into the emotional and mental fatigue that Sylvia was talking about, the stuff that was making it hard for me to keep balanced, he realized. This hadn't been the first time he'd lost his temper like this while here, after all.

He took a deep breath, and calmed himself down.

"I'm sorry," Blake apologized. "I didn't mean to snap like that."

"It's fine," Valdette said, smiling. It was bright enough where she could see his smile. "I can sense your emotions, remember? I know you're feeling really tense, but I also know you aren't actually angry at me. Don't worry."

Blake sighed in relief. "Anyway, what… what I was saying… How do you know that name? How do you know who Aya is?"

"Your emotions are going wild with 'Aya'," Valdette replied. "Sensing emotions… it's not mind reading. But when it comes to people you feel strongly about, when you think about them, and your emotions towards them come out… sometimes we can feel faces, and names." She gave him a sheepish smile. "Also… the painful thoughts I ate from you before, they had the name 'Aya' all over them, too, with worries for her."

"I see," Blake said, nodding.

"These feelings are so strong… is she your friend?" Valdette asked curiously.

"What?! No, she's not a friend!" Blake protested. "Well, I mean, she is a friend, but… okay, look, remember when Sylvia was joking about you liking me?"

"Oh, when she thought that I wanted to mate with you!" Valdette remembered, nodding her head. Blake wished she hadn't put it like that.

"…Yeah, that time," Blake admitted. "She's my girlfriend. I'm in love with her. Remember how you said I was marked? She's the one who I… well, not 'belong' to, but… She's the one who I need to get back home to."

"Isn't that what a friend is?" Valdette asked, confused. "Someone who your feelings for them are so overwhelming that you want to be with them forever? Kiss them for reasons other than soothing their emotions?"

"No, that's… what you're describing is a girlfriend," Blake said. "Or a boyfriend, if you like boys… I guess your Traveler didn't mention that part."

"I don't know," Valdette admitted. "Those were just the emotions I felt from her when she talked about friends."

Blake considered this. "Maybe… maybe Valetty and Valdette don't have any ability to distinguish the difference between a friend and a girlfriend or boyfriend."

"Maybe," Valdette agreed, but she didn't seem sure. She was feeling rather confused, actually, and looked around absentmindedly, with an expression that, to Blake, looked almost like it could be called disappointed.

Blake didn't need to be an empath like her to see that there was something weighing on Valdette's mind.

"Hey, what's up?" Blake asked. "Why the question about Aya?" He assumed that was where the issue was, considering it was after mentioning her that she had started to get that strange, confused look on her face.

"I just thought that it was a nice name," Valdette admitted, a sheepish blush crossing her face. "Whenever you think of that name, you feel all warm and hopeful, I was wondering, um… if it was okay… maybe that could be my nickname?"

Blake opened his mouth, but he wasn't sure what to say. He couldn't exactly call her out on choosing her name for herself. She had more of a right to choosing her name than he did, anyway. But he did wish that she'd chosen another one. Having to call the Valdette "Aya" was certainly going to make things complicated.

Not to mention that Sylvia would never let him live it down.

But most of all… he didn't want anything to draw his attention away from Ayame Toujou. There was only one Aya in his heart.

"I'm not… going to say you can't," Blake said, turning away from her and staring at the opening in front of them. "But that name… Aya… she means so much to me. If you could… I would ask you to choose another name."

Valdette blinked. She looked a little dejected. Honestly, the name made her feel kind of warm and fuzzy, and she didn't want to pick another one, but she didn't want to make Blake feel unhappy, either… his emotions were making this so complicated!

Maybe there was something she could do to make it easier for them both.

"What about… what if I take the name 'Aya'… but change it a little?" Valdette asked hopefully. "Would that be okay?"

"I mean, yeah, I guess it would be fine," Blake said. "What would you change it to?"

"I'm Valdette," Valdette said, holding her hand over her chest. "So… can my name be 'Val-Aya? Or I guess that would be Valaya… Would that be okay?"

Blake turned and looked back at her hopeful face. He smiled. "Yeah, that sounds great. So your name is Valaya now? Does that sound good?"

"Yes!" Valaya said, her face lighting up with joy. She giggled a little. "Though, I was getting used to calling myself 'Valdette' after so long as a Valetty… I guess it's going to take a lot of getting used to, 'Valaya'!"

"Congratulations," Blake said, smiling. "We're here."

He pulled himself out of the entrance, his eyes adjusting to the bright tent. Helping Valaya out, he looked around. Sylvia was nowhere to be seen.

Blake sighed. "Okay, let's go get her before she makes it into the forest," he said, heading out of the tent. Luckily, Sylvia wasn't running at top speed. Her torch was gone, probably tossed aside, and she was heading straight for the forest.

"Sylvia!" Blake shouted, chasing after her. His chest ached with pain the closer he got to the forest, but he wasn't going to let Sylvia go inside and get sucked into a permanent sleep, or whatever it was that awaited her in the forest. Valaya ran after him, and the two of them caught up to her before she could get to the trees.

"What do you want?" Sylvia scowled, glancing back at him. "Because I promise you, I'm not going to let you go into that forest."

"Sylvia, you're a smart girl," Blake scowled. "You know better than this! If you go in there, you'll never get out! You know that! I thought you were better than this… impatient behavior!"

Sylvia bit her lip, and nodded. "Yeah. I know."

"According to Valaya, the other Valdette know more about what's going on with this place, and might know some stuff about the Traveler and the Darkness in the forest," Blake explained. Valaya nodded alongside of him.

"Valaya, huh? Nice name," Sylvia nodded at the Valdette. "…So what you're saying is that we should go see Dommy-Mommy and talk to her?"

"It's worth a shot," Blake said, shrugging. "Don't you think it's at least a good idea to get all the info before we wind up condemning ourselves to eternal sleep?"

"No one's condemning you to anything," Sylvia snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You aren't going near that forest, even if I never come back."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Blake replied, giving her a scowl. "If I go in there, it's gonna be horrible. Just standing this close to it I feel like I'm going to collapse from the pain. If you go in there, you're going alone."

Blake sighed. "Sylvia, I trust you. After what you've told me, of course I do. So is it too much for you to trust me?"

Sylvia sighed, and nodded her head. "Let's get going then. Time to see what Dommy-Mommy's got to say."

"Blake, what's a 'Dommy-Mommy'?" Valaya asked.

Blake wasn't going to answer that one. The three of them headed back towards the tents, to find a Valdette who could explain things better than Valaya could.

So, Valaya now has a name! As for where we go from here… what will the Valdette reveal to us about this world? The forest? The Darkness? Ways to get back? Next chapter should definitely answer a few questions, I hope.