With Blake having returned, he has to go clear things up with everyone who thought he was missing or dead. Be prepared for a lot of heartwarming reunions, a few of which may even leave you misty-eyed, or outright shocked! Remember to review!

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: Good, because this is definitely a time for celebration!

JoshGamerV: Great, I love when people theorize about stuff! It always makes me happy to know that I'm getting people so invested!

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Now time for happy, sappy reunion times with Blake and all of his friends and pokemon!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 648

"I don't like it," Ayame said, puffing her cheeks out and shaking her head.

"Come on, Aya, it's going to be funny," Blake assured her with a mischievous smile. "It's just going to be for a little while!"

"…I don't wanna let you go," Ayame said, hugging Blake tighter. They had made the entire walk to the Bulbasaur Dorm with Ayame clinging to Blake like he was a Drifloon that would float away if she let go of him.

"Come on, please?" Blake giggled.

Ayame pouted, and then sighed, letting him go. "Whatever happened to you those two years you were gone, it seems Sylvia was a bad influence on you," she scowled. "I don't think this is a funny joke at all, they were really worried."

"It'll be a good way to break the ice," Blake said. I hope, he silently added. Moreso he was just too uncomfortable with the idea of making some grand return in a fancy way, that would seem too awkward. He felt that this would be a better way of getting it over with.

So even though Ayame didn't want to let him go, she did, watching with reluctance from the hall as he walked over to the girl's room, and knocked on it. In the seconds before they responded, Blake took a moment to appreciate the atmosphere; how long had it been since he had been in the hall of his dorm? Too long, that was for sure.

"Yeah, come in," Cynthia called out. A smile spread across his face. Just hearing her voice again felt great. Like he really had come back home. Blake took a deep breath, curious about how everyone would react, and stepped inside.

Cynthia wasn't paying attention. She had been lying down on her bed, scrolling through her phone when she'd heard the knock, and assumed it was Sango. Julia was also in the room, sitting at her desk and typing up a paper on her computer. Like Cynthia, she had assumed that Sango had come back. Even though it was rather early for her, it was still possible. It might have been Nick or Reiner, as well, or maybe even Nikita or Kitty, although Kitty would have texted her.

So neither girl paid much mind when Cynthia offered to let their guest in.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Blake asked, strolling casually into the room as though he hadn't gone missing for such a long period of time.

"Oh, hey Blake, nothing much, just going through my messages," Cynthia said.

…

It took a few seconds after she'd said it to put the pieces together.

"BLAKE?!" Cynthia screamed, leaping off of her bed in shock. Considering she had the top bunk, that ended very poorly for her, and she crashed into the ground. But she ignored the pain, staring up in shock at Blake. It was like a ghost had appeared before her.

"Blake?!" Julia gasped, falling out of her chair herself. Normally cool and composed, it was quite a surprise to see her face twisted in disbelief like it was. Though it couldn't be compared with Cynthia's dumb expression, she was no less shocked by what she saw.

In spite of both girls refusing to believe that Blake was gone at first, the past few weeks had broken their spirits and slowly caused them to bitterly accept the inevitable.

And now he was standing in front of them.

If Julia's shocked face had been a surprise to Blake, it was nothing compared to the shock he felt when she leapt up and ran to him, pulling him into a hug. Blake had expected it to be Cynthia who would hug him, but Julia? He was at a loss for words, not able to even hug her back it had caught him so greatly off-guard.

"You're okay," she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks and covering his shirt. "I was so worried… I thought you were never coming back…"

Blake eyes were wide at the sight of Julia openly weeping while she hugged him. He turned to Cynthia and looked questioningly at her, but she was no help either. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide with shock, and she was crying just as hard at Julia at the sight of him. That at least Blake had suspected. If Cynthia hadn't been so weak in the knees she would have gotten up herself and hugged him along with her.

When she got her strength back that was exactly what she did, tackling Blake with enough force that all three of them were sent to the floor.

"Back already, and you're already fooling around with other women, I see," Ayame said, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the doorframe, raising her eyebrow as she gave Blake a stern glare.

Blake glanced up at her and laughed sheepishly.

After Blake finished explaining what had happened to him and Sylvia, Cynthia and Julia sat on Julia's bed in stunned surprise. And not just because Ayame was hugging Blake like a body pillow the entire time he was explaining.

"Wow, that was just… wow," Cynthia said, shaking her head in disbelief. "You guys made it back, that… that must be… wow."

"Yeah," Blake admitted. "That world was completely insane. I can't believe we managed to get back to this world." He glanced at Julia. "At least, I'm pretty sure we're really back. I'm not completely convinced this is really our world, considering-"

"Forget what happened," Julia replied, a cold aura emanating out of her as she glared angrily at Blake. "You were imagining it."

"That was quite a face you made," Blake smirked.

"Forget. It." The scowl on Julia's face was quite a warning.

"I'm glad you missed me so much."

Julia snarled, her face flushing in embarrassment.

"I'm not shy like Julia, so I'll say it for the both of us," Cynthia said, hopping off the bed and walking over to Sango's bunk across from them. She hugged him as well, still crying a little. "I'm so glad that you made it back, Blake."

Blake smiled. "So, um… this may sound a little… awkward, but… how many people do I still have to explain things to?" He asked. "Is there anyone else who knows I was missing?"

Cynthia looked back at Julia, turning a little pink in the cheeks.

"Oh, so you want your pokemon back, huh?" Serefina scowled, crossing her arms underneath her sizeable chest and cocking her hip to the side. She stood outside the stable where pokemon being raised by the Caretakers were taken care of. "You think you can just waltz right in here after one of your friends dumps your pokemon off on us for two weeks?"

"Look, Serefina, there were some circumstances…" Blake tried to explain. Serefina glanced over his shoulder at Ayame, who was still clinging to him, and raised her eyebrow.

"…Oh, I'll bet there were," she said dryly. "You know, Ayame wasn't exactly thrilled when she heard you were gone."

Blake sighed and hung his head. He pointed behind him at Ayame to emphasize his point. "Yeah. I know. Trust me."

"And that Salamence of yours wasn't exactly a pokemon we could handle care for with our normal policies, you realize that?" Serefina added. "We had to get a specialist to take care of her. So you need to apologize to Erik, too."

"Look, Serefina, I'm sorry, but-"

Serefina interrupted him with a long, exaggerated sigh. "Fine, fine, whatever… let's get going, I'll bring you over to your pokemon. There's someone else who's going to want to see you're okay too, you understand."

Serefina guided them down into the depths of the caretaking chambers, and they reached the rooms at the bottom, where Blake's pokemon were being raised during the winter cold. It was a rather difficult journey to make with Ayame clinging to Blake the whole time, but somehow all three of them made it to the ground.

Blake didn't want to guess what the trip up would be like.

Blake had been in here a few times, to visit his spare pokemon when they were being cared for, but right now it was so much better than all the other times. Feeling the warm, soothing air of the enclosure and hearing the happy growls, chirps, squeaks, and murmurs of the various pokemon filling the chamber made him feel like he was really back in a world of life. Not like that dull, muted world of gray that he had been trapped in.

When Blake saw his pokemon, the nostalgic smile he wore burst into a big, dopey grin of joy.

"'Lord Helix' never told you, what happened to your father.' Dome Vader declared." Kitty was reading to Blake's pokemon in a deep voice that sounded so weird it was hard not to laugh. "'He told me enough!' Pidgeot exclaimed. 'He told me you killed him!'"

Hearing how high she made Bird Jesus's voice sound DID get a snicker out of Blake.

"'No!' Dome Vader declared. 'I am your father!'" Kitty gruffly snarled. Blake's pokemon all gasped in shock and horror.

"That's quite a voice you have there, Kitty," Blake called out. "Maybe you'd like to try your hand at being an actress!"

Of all the reactions he'd seen so far, Kitty's took the cake. She SCREAMED in surprise as she heard his voice behind her, throwing her hands into the air and the book along with them. She practically jumped her own height off the stool she was sitting on, turning to Blake with a wide-eyed look of surprise on her face.

"BLAKE?!" Kitty exclaimed, her face a flustered mess of confusion, joy, and even more confusion. "But that's not… how are you-?! How did…?"

"That's a lot of questions, Kitty, I don't know if I'll have time to answer all of them," he laughed, walking over to her. "But I'm back. Thank you for taking care of my pokemon while I was gone, that really means a lot to me."

Another surprise was that the incredibly affectionate Kitty hadn't hugged him. Between her and Julia, he had expected she would be the one to jump on him and never let go. But apparently she had been so stunned by his return that like Cynthia, she was frozen solid.

Cynthia hadn't really looked so statue-like though.

If Blake was feeling disappointed by the lack of affection from Kitty, his pokemon more than made up for it. Cory and Rogen lunged at him first, and their hard bodies slamming into him sent a painful burst through his chest. But he smiled and hugged them both, breaking away from Ayame to do it. Big mistake, as his pokemon were so affectionate that without her as a buffer Blake was quickly knocked over onto his back.

"Galvantula!" Ruru scuttled over, rubbing up tenderly against her trainer, the soft static of her fur tickling Blake and making him laugh. Silver caught up as well, the small Skorupi overjoyed to see his parent having made it to him. Ayame knelt down and held the little pokemon gently, smiling as well. She really should have come to visit them, but it had been too hard for her.

Speaking of hard, Uni was in tears. The small green pokemon burst out crying, overjoyed that Blake was back. Having such a strong connection to Blake and her former trainer, his sister, feeling that he was back, it was overwhelming her. She flung herself into his chest and nearly squished flat pressing up against him in happiness at his return. Blake smiled, rubbing her gently with his free hand.

Weiss, of course, in contrast to Blake's more affectionate pokemon, stood coolly off to the side, a small smile on his face as he stared at Blake.

Tara, of course, jumped onto Blake, hugging him tightly, before she realized what she was doing and pulled back away from him. She turned her nose to the side and humphed, pretending like she hadn't been deathly worried and crestfallen about the absence of her trainer. Blake reached out and petted her, much to her consternation.

Blake had to smile. It was good to see that she was worried. And even better to see that everyone was okay.

Blake was so grateful for the affections of his pokemon, he almost forgot about his last pokemon here, a pokemon whose affections were rather…

"MAREEEEEEEEAAAA!" Maria jumped off the ground, spines extended, and pierced Blake's chest with her poisonous barbs. Blake let out a wail of pain as Maria's affectionate stabbing sent paralytic venom coursing through him, causing him to seize up.

Serefina sighed, rubbing her temples in frustration, worry clear on her face. "I'll go get the antidote," she said, rushing off.

After Blake was restored to health, he explained everything to Kitty, and she nodded in understanding, calming down once she realized what was going on. She was relieved to see that Blake was okay, and apologized profusely for the reaction she'd had to it. Blake laughed it off, and assured her that it was okay.

Then he explained what Julia's reaction had been, and Kitty's jaw hit the ground.

"You're kidding!" She said, resisting the urge to break out laughing.

"No, I'm serious," Blake said. Kitty had joined him and Aya, and all three were walking back to Bulbasaur dorm.

Blake was grateful that Serefina had pulled some strings and allowed him to take all of his pokemon with him, instead of just six. He wanted to spend time with everyone tonight. After a quick stop at the Dragon Valley to visit Erik and get back Sarah (and if Blake had thought his OTHER pokemon were emotional at seeing him return, Sarah's overjoyed blast of flames quickly broke all of THOSE records), they were finally on their way back. "When she saw me? Tears. Streaming down her face."

"I knew that she was really resistant to the idea that you were gone, but… wow, I just can't imagine that," Kitty said, shaking her head. She tried to picture Julia crying tears of joy, and the closest she came was the face she'd made when Kitty had finally come down from her harmonia power-trip. But it wasn't quite the same.

Kitty pouted, shooting Blake a look. Blake had gotten to see an expression of Julia's that she hadn't, and she didn't think it was very fair!

"Lucky," she muttered under her breath as they headed up the stairs. But she didn't let her jealousy get the better of her, she was still overjoyed by the fact that Blake had managed to make it back safe and sound!

When they got to Blake's room, they were in for quite a surprise.

Nick and Callie were kissing on Nick's bed. Mildly amused, Blake cleared his throat to alert them to his presence, and once again he was greeted by the sounds of screaming and his name being called out in disbelief.

Callie was the first person to scream with that much terror, though.

"AAAAAH! ZOMBIE!" She shrieked, her facing going pale with horror as she stared at Blake, shaking like a leaf. She scrambled up and off the bed, holding her hands up defensively in front of Nick, protecting her boyfriend, as scared as she might have been. "Get… Get back, zombie!"

Blake had no idea what she was talking about. He glanced back at Ayame, who shook her head, not knowing what the issue was.

"Callie, he's not a zombie," Nick said, though he was just as confused. "Blake, are you… are you back? How?"

"Yeah, how?!" Callie demanded. "Back from the afterlife?! Not possible!"

A guilty look passed over Nick and Kitty's faces, and that was enough to tell Callie that something was wrong.

She scowled, shooting looks between her boyfriend and her short friend. "Okay, what have I missed, huh?!"

"I can't believe you lied to me!" Callie exclaimed, her anger burning out of her as she glared at her boyfriend. "You both… no, you all lied to me! Telling me Blake was dead, letting me believe that, instead of telling me that he was… that he was just gone into that tablet?! That was something I absolutely needed to know!"

"Hey, don't look at me," Blake said, shaking his head. "I had nothing to do with it, all I did was get trapped in another dimension."

"I assumed you knew," Ayame shrugged as best as she could, sitting on Blake's bed with him on her lap and her arms wrapped tightly around his chest. "Sorry."

Callie wasn't really addressing the two of them, though. She wasn't even really addressing Kitty, honestly.

Mainly, she was staring at Nick.

"Sorry, Callie," Nick apologized, glancing down sheepishly. "But… Sango said that if we told you, then you'd have to tell the faculty, due to your role as one of the Eight Leaders, and she didn't want to force you to do that, since it would mean that the professor would get in trouble."

Callie scowled, but she understood what he was saying. She let out a reluctant sigh and nodded her head. "Yeah, you're right, I would have had to," she admitted. But that didn't make her feel better. Her fierce expression returned. "But even so! You still should have told me, Nicky! …I don't want you to keep any secrets from me anymore," she softly added.

"I'm sorry, Callie, I'm really sorry," Nick apologized.

"Well, hopefully you'll make it up to me tomorrow night," Callie said, her face lighting up. "After all, it's supposed to be magical, our first Valentine's Day…" She blushed, and shifted on his bed a little, wrapping her hand around his. "Our first Star Dance…"

Blake felt a little miffed they were getting hot and heavy in front of him instead of celebrating his return, but he let that feeling go. He didn't really have a right to be mad, not when he himself had been absent for so long. He didn't really have the right to EXPECT people to fawn all over him.

Callie glanced his way shortly after their touching moment, and smiled at the two of them.

"It really is a miracle," she murmured, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Blake made it back right before Valentine's Day… the two of you can celebrate it together."

Blake and Ayame turned bright red, and Blake could feel Aya's heartbeat accelerating against his back as she clutched him tighter to her chest.

Kitty, who was notably single with zero plans, felt a little miffed herself.

No one in the room noticed that Reiner and Nikita had been hanging outside, listening in on the conversation. They glanced at each other in disbelief.

After learning that Blake wasn't dead, he had only been transported from that tablet, the two of them had adjusted their perspective that he could never come back considerably. Reiner, a budding student of archaeology, and Nikita, quite a wiz herself, had spent the last two weeks buried in the library looking for any clues they could. They had actually returned from the library just now, stacks of books in their hands.

They smiled at each other, happy Blake was back. They didn't need to say a word to understand that neither one of them wanted to bug him right now. They turned and headed back to the library to return their books. As they did, they saw Sango about to head into her room with Silver right behind her.

Reiner had a rather devious idea.

"Oh, hey Sango! What's up?" He called.

"Long day," Sango yawned, glancing at the two of them. "What's up with you guys? Still hitting the books, I see?"

"Not anymore!" Nikita said, her face brimming with excitement. "Actually-!"

"Actually," Reiner interrupted her, "we've reached the conclusion that you're right. There's no point in us trying to find a way to bring Blake back home."

"…Yeah," Sango said, shaking her head. Her face morphed into a scowl, she wasn't exactly thrilled with this topic of conversation. "Whatever."

Nikita stared at Reiner in shock, but he shot her a look that told her to hold off for a moment. He turned back to Sango with a solemn expression on his face.

"Hey, um, we left a few more books back in my room, actually," Reiner said, nodding over his shoulder. "Do you mind going to go grab them so we can take them back?"

Sango stared at them. It was rather late to be going to the library, the place was probably closed for the night. And Sango really needed rest…

"Isn't it late? Can't you do it in the morning?" She griped.

"Please, Sango?" Nikita pleaded, seeing where Reiner was going with this. She had to suppress a snicker. "We really want to just put this whole thing behind us and move on."

Sango blinked her bleary eyes, yawned, and nodded. "Fine, whatever…" she sighed. Anything was better than lying awake in bed thinking about Blake. She might as well put it off for another hour or so by helping with this.

She trudged past them, Reiner and Nikita's eyes meeting behind her back as they resisted the urge to laugh. They turned to watch Sango walk into the room.

When she screamed, they couldn't hold it in anymore, their books flying everywhere as they rolled on the ground in fits of hysterics.

Nice to see that things are slowly getting back to normal. It's really for the best. What's next for our group, now that they're all reunited? Why, Valentine's Day, of course! And that should be fun. Surely nothing can go wrong then!