Things have taken a very dark turn in this story, as you can see. Dakota has just been attacked. Will she make it out alive? Will there be any permanent damage? I'm sure you want to know the answer to that question. But just like in real life, that isn't a question with an easy answer. So you'll have to keep reading, and see what we learn about Dakota and her situation, just like everyone else. It will be a rather heart-wrenching moment, I promise you that.

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 story is finally completed! Thank you for reading!

Today is the final day of the Semi-Final Round of the second Pokemon Academy Best Girl contest! Which three of these six girls will make it to the Finals? In the eleventh hour, not only is Dakota in a predicament, but so are the poll results! There seems to be clear front runners, and unless we get an influx of votes, the top 3 are pretty much set in stone! So who is going to win? Well, vote for your best girl, and we'll see!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Sylvia, Marion, Sango, Elaina, Valerie

KedharS: She very well might be.

Guest: Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Maybe she would prefer death to what happened to her, we'll have to find out.

Venoms Cross 2: Well, she's certainly on death's door. Whether she lives or not, we'll have to find out.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: The question is, did Dakota leave any evidence where the Phantom would think to look? And don't worry, the Phantom doesn't have influence over anyone in the faculty that we know of.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: My cast was getting lengthy and I started trimming. You wanted fresh faces, right? Here's how we get it. Ayame's the next one on the chopping block.

Thunder Fire: The Phantom, in the Library, with… well, we don't know that part yet. But 2/3.

JoshGamerV: Well, you've certainly gotten most of the pieces. Now you just need to put them together. Once you figure out what Dakota learned, it'll probably fall into place.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 688

On the silent night of Valentine's Day, chaos broke out across the campus. Dakota was rushed to the infirmary, where it was quickly judged that her injuries were far too severe to be treated there. She had been airlifted by helicopter to a hospital on the mainland, and in spite of Akira's protests he wasn't allowed to accompany her. He was forced to stay behind and give his statement to the police officers that had come to investigate, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

They wouldn't even tell him if she was okay.

Needless to say, when the school collectively woke up in the night, it wasn't to fond feelings of a romantic evening, but the shock and panic at the knowledge that something had happened overnight. And people were starting to get scared.

No one was more freaked out than the people who knew Dakota, however, who were so shocked that they didn't even know what to say. It didn't help that, like Akira, they were completely in the dark about what had happened and her condition.

By breakfast, everyone knew what had happened.

Kitty's heart ached as she headed to the Snorlax Commons. She was scared. Not just because someone she knew had been attacked, but because she knew what Dakota meant to Serefina, and she knew that Serefina was probably not doing very good.

Julia squeezed Kitty's hand, and Kitty's pain lessened. She didn't smile, but she felt more relieved by the presence of her friend. Julia felt relieved herself. She was worried about Kitty, and cared about her deeply, and knew that this was a difficult time for them both.

It wasn't the first time that someone Julia knew had been in an accident. And on the heels of what had happened to Blake, she knew that things were probably going to slide back to the mood of despair a few days prior.

But… But no, there was no need to worry about that! Dakota wasn't dead, she… she would be fine, Julia had to believe that.

So when Kitty and Julia met Nikita and Reiner and the four of them sat, she tried hard to pretend like everything was okay.

But unfortunately no one was buying it. The mood was deathly solemn, nobody said a word. They didn't even touch their food.

It was like the happiness and levity of the night before had died with Dakota.

No! She's not dead! Julia corrected herself, mentally slapping her face. She couldn't think that way, if she let her fears get the better of her, then Kitty might begin to get worried, too, and Julia didn't want to see her friend cry!

Cynthia and Sango came to join them, and much to Julia's disappointment, they didn't do anything to change the mood. She was hoping that they would, really, because they were two of the most positive and upbeat girls that she knew. But no, not even they could find any levity this morning. Sango in particular looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep, her eyes were sunken and baggy and her head sunk down in a dejected frown.

"You guys heard, huh?" Cynthia mumbled, pulling out a chair and sitting down. She lazily scanned the cafeteria for Blake, but she couldn't see him anywhere. That was somewhat disappointing, but she kind of suspected that he wouldn't be here.

Ironically, in spite of how much it had stung last night, in spite of the fact that when she had tried to get some sleep she had cried into her pillow, the news of Dakota's attack put all of that in a much different perspective.

"Hey everyone."

A new voice broke the tense and dejected mood, and everyone turned to see their newest arrivals, Callie and Nick. It had been Callie who had addressed them, and as bad as everyone else looked, Callie looked worse.

"Callie, hey, what's up?" Kitty asked. She knew why Callie looked so dejected and miserable, clearly it was due to Dakota.

"I got called in last night," Callie said, her voice filled with bitterness as she set her tray down next to Kitty. "I was one of the people who had to stay up to handle things with Dakota's assault." Nick sat quietly down next to her. He'd already heard all of this.

The rest of the table, though, was suddenly alive with questions. They had been sitting alone with their thoughts not sure what to do, but the idea that there was something going on and that Callie could finally tell them what happened had gotten them nimated.

"What happened?!" Julia demanded, surprised at her own forcefulness. "When Dakota got attacked, is she… who?!"

Callie was stunned, but she held her tongue. She couldn't let on everything she knew that wasn't appropriate. She would tell them what she could about the incident, though.

And most importantly, she wanted to let her friends know that it wasn't as bad as they were fearing. There was still something reassuring.

"Dakota is alive," Callie said, everyone sighing in relief. Well, technically, it was too soon to make that distinction. But she had been alive when Callie had last confirmed, and was currently undergoing major surgery.

"That's a relief," Kitty said, letting out a sigh that everyone agreed with.

"What happened?" Reiner asked, happy Dakota was okay but more concerned with the fact that there was someone on the island who had tried to kill somebody. "Why did she get attacked? Who was it? Do they have any suspects?"

"I can't talk about that," Callie said, shaking her head. Saying that was more reassuring than saying that the police had no idea and no leads, or at least not any that they were willing to share with the faculty and the student representatives.

Unfortunately, she hadn't said anything all that relieving to her friends, who were a little worried about Reiner's question, now that they thought a little clearer about it. Because, yeah, there was someone who had come and attacked someone, and there weren't any leads.

"How's Serefina doing?" Kitty asked quietly. She didn't think Callie would know, but she had to ask, just to be sure. "Can I go see her?"

Like Akira, Serefina had spent her morning being interviewed by the police because she had been one of the last people to see Dakota. Kitty really hoped that Serefina wasn't too broken by what had happened, and that she would be strong.

Kitty shouldn't have left her behind yesterday. Even though she loved Nikita and wanted to help her, now that she knew what had happened, she knew that Serefina had needed her help a whole lot more, in hindsight.

Poor Serefina. Poor Akira!

She hoped that they were doing okay.

Neither Serefina nor Akira were doing okay. Serefina walked back out into the waiting room of the campus security office pale as a sheet. She couldn't believe it. It just couldn't be true. Dakota… Dakota had been…

Why wasn't anyone telling her anything?

She sat down next to Akira, and at a glance she could tell that he was doing even worse than she was right now. Dakota had been one of Serefina's closest friends, but to Akira she was so much more than that.

Akira just looked broken. His face was an empty mask, and his eyes were glassy and unfocused, staring aimlessly off into the distance. He hadn't even changed his clothes.

Serefina could see in his eyes that he wanted to be left alone. Well, she couldn't tell that specifically, of course, but the dull, empty pit of nothing staring back at her was more than enough of an answer.

But it wasn't an answer that she was going to accept for a second. Akira needed someone to talk to right now. He couldn't be alone. She knew that, because right now SHE needed someone to talk to, and couldn't be alone.

Serefina had lost a friend, and Akira had lost a lover. Normally, Serefina would mind her own business and let him greave in his own way, but she had seen Akira greave before. This wasn't the first person that he'd lost.

She could still remember what it had been like to channel Satsuki. It had only been for a few moments, but in those few moments she had felt the pain and anguish that the ghost felt, and the regret at what had happened. Her loneliness.

If Dakota really was dead, then that would make it the second time that someone he loved had been violently ripped from his life with him being powerless to stop it. He must be feeling even worse than she was right now, there was no way that he wouldn't. Serefina wished she could do something, anything, to change what had happened. She prayed that Dakota would somehow make it out alive, but she wasn't about to cling onto false hope.

Denial, pretending that everything was going to be okay, that wasn't what Akira needed to pick himself up, and it wasn't all that helpful for Serefina, either.

"Akira…" Serefina whispered his name quietly, not sure what response she expected to get. She didn't even know what she was planning to say. But she'd said his name to call his attention to her, to let him know that he didn't have to go through this alone. She was here for him, no matter what. She just hoped that he would speak to her!

But he didn't. He didn't even blink. It was like he hadn't heard her at all. How much must it have hurt, to withdraw like this? Right now, Serefina felt like her heart was ripped open, how much worse was it for Akira?

Staring at his numb expression made her heart sting. Because it was really making it sink in, that Dakota was gone.

Dakota's smiling face. That obnoxious laugh of hers. The way she would put on her glasses with a flourish when she wanted to look smart. Her frantic typing at 2 in the morning, which usually ended in Serefina throwing a pillow at her.

So many little things Serefina was remembering now about her friend, and she would never notice them again.

She had lived with Dakota for almost two years now. And in that time, she had accumulated a lot of pleasant memories, and more than her fair share of unpleasant ones. In fact, the unpleasant ones outweighed the pleasant ones by leaps and bounds.

But as she flashed through them, she treasured them all. Whether it was the creeper shots in the bathroom, or selling pictures of her sleeping face to degenerates, they were all things that made Dakota part of who she was.

How many of those memories did Akira have of Dakota? There had to be so many more than she had, and they were probably far more precious.

That was why she couldn't cry.

She wasn't allowed to cry right now, not while Akira was holding in his tears. When the time came for him to break down, that was when she would be there right beside him, crying away her pain just as he was.

Until then, she had to be strong, even when she wanted to be weak.

And part of being strong meant that she had to get Akira out of her shell.

"Akira!" Her voice was stronger now, even if her heart wasn't. She couldn't rely on the squeaky whispers that came naturally, she needed…

How ironic. She needed to be as strong and forceful as Dakota.

Luckily, Serefina might have been weak, but she could be brave and tough when she needed to be. Seeing that Akira wasn't reacting even to her calling his name right beside him, she knew that it was going to take more.

Serefina shook him next, pleading with him. "Akira, Akira, please."

But even as his head bobbed from side to side, Akira wasn't responding to her. Not even to shove her off, not to nothing. It was like she was shaking a stuffed pokemon.

Serefina had never had this much trouble getting the attention of a boy before, she actually found herself at a loss of what to do.

"Seri, just show him your boobs, it'll be a lot easier." Back in their first year, Dakota had joked about that when Serefina had been helping her out on a story about pokemon caretaking and their strategies, talking to some of the older students. That had been her friend's brilliant strategy for getting their source to open up.

Serefina, of course, had socked Dakota in the jaw. Dakota had been right in the end, because even without exposing herself, the boy had still given them the information after taking one look at Serefina's cleavage, but that hadn't been the point!

Even in my memories she's giving me terrible advice, Serefina griped. And god, did she want more of it. Dakota's jokes, her teasing, her excessive sexualization of Serefina's boobs (motivated in no small part by envy, Serefina assumed) just more things Serefina missed about her.

Less than five minutes into making her vow to be strong for Akira's sake and not cry, and Serefina was already breaking it. She curled up and sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks in spite of how hard she tried to resist.

She just couldn't help it, it just wasn't fair! Dakota… Dakota didn't deserve that! She didn't deserve any of it! Why?! Why had she of all people been attacked? Sure, she printed some exaggerations and slandered people, but that wasn't any reason to kill her! That… That was something that a monster did, not someone who had just had a few bad rumors posted about them…

Realizing that what she was thinking made a lot of sense, Serefina wiped her tears away and began to consider it.

Why HAD Dakota been attacked? The police had asked a bunch of questions about her camera and her laptop (which Serefina had learned had both been smashed beyond repair). Another camera ruined, she bitterly added, remembering just how much that specific camera had meant to her friend.

Serefina had assumed that they were just destroyed as a result of whatever had happened, but… now that she thought about it…

No, it couldn't be, could it?

Serefina had been blaming herself, even though she didn't want to. How could she not? Even she could see how she was at fault here, at least partially. She had the opportunity to stop Dakota, the last time she had seen her. She could have grabbed her thrown her down into bed, and forced her to get some more sleep, but she hadn't. She had just watched her friend run out of the room, and out of her life forever.

But she hadn't stopped to think about why what had happened to Dakota had happened. If this wasn't some random act of violence, then maybe…

Dakota had looked through her camera feed, that's something that Serefina remembered, even if she had only been paying half attention. She was digging through it, and then she'd spotted something. What was it? What had she seen? Whatever it was, it had been enough to make her run to the library to research.

The question was, what had she found in the library?

Serefina felt like a lunatic. Like she was trying to figure out some sort of conspiracy in what had been a grisly tragedy.

But something this bad hadn't happened for no reason.

Now came the speculation. Serefina didn't want to admit it, but part of her was thinking that if she managed to find the truth somehow, that would bring Dakota back to her, safe and sound. It was a stupid thing to hope for, and she never would be able to consider it consciously, because Serefina wasn't Dakota. She had a reasonable head on her shoulders, and wasn't a wild dreamer. But as much of a realist as she was, part of her couldn't help but hope.

Denial came in many forms.

Maybe Dakota would survive the surgery. Maybe she would pull through, maybe she would wake up. Maybe she would be alright.

There were a lot of maybes, and Serefina wasn't confident in any of them.

But whether she was okay or not eventually, Serefina knew that right now, Dakota wasn't here.

And that meant she would have to be the one to pick up the slack and figure out what happened to her friend.

I have to get to the bottom of this, Serefina decided. That's what Dakota would have done, if it had been me that had gotten attacked.

There were no truer words to be spoken. If Serefina had been assaulted and sent to the hospital, or god forbid, killed, then Dakota would have turned over heaven and earth to get to the bottom of it, she wouldn't have accepted "random act of violence from a lunatic" as an answer, not Dakota Evans, Master Reporter.

Dakota would keep digging, even if made no sense. Even if no one would believe her. She would try to figure out the truth, figure out what had happened to Serefina, and Serefina couldn't do her friend a disservice by refusing to do the same.

Dakota, you would keep going, until the very end. And that's what I'm going to do, too, Serefina vowed. Not just for Dakota's sake, or for the truth, but for her sake and Akira's sake as well. She would pull him from this painful haze no matter what it took.

The irony was, she was going to need his help to do that, because Akira was the only witness she had to question.

Which meant she had to find some way to reach him, to get him out of this shell that he was trapped inside of.

Serefina didn't know how she would do it, but she rose from her seat and turned towards him, standing over the poor boy. She winced, looking down at him like this. What she was about to do, it was horrible. Maybe the worst thing Serefina had ever done.

But there was only one thing she could think of to shake him out of his fugue state. She took a deep breath, and forced a smirk onto her face.

"Come on, Aki!" She declared in her best approximation of Dakota's jubilant cheer. "What are you doing, moping around like this?! There's a scoop here, and I'm just the girl to sniff it out! And you're just the man to help me!"

Her heart broke as the words left her lips.

Meanwhile, across campus, another girl awoke to the surprises of the day. It was her first night's sleep since she'd come back, and not only did she feel rested, but she could sense in the air that something had happened.

"Well now," Sylvia mused, stretching her arms and climbing out of bed. She thumbed through her phone and scanned the campus feed, seeing all sorts of fascinating things. "It seems I've awoken to quite a surprise indeed."

A wry smirk crossed her face.

"It looks like I've got some work to do, then. Today promises to be rather exciting indeed!"

Who attacked Dakota and why? Don't worry, we've got a few expert sleuths on the case! Well, one. And Serefina is sure going to do her best, too!