So while Darla is busy with Reed's test, Lila is minding her own business and enjoying her day off. But even she must feel that something very wrong is going on. Will she be able to figure out the truth? Will she learn what Darla is trying so desperately to hide?

Pokemonking0924: Basically yes. Marion and Reed have a lot of similarities, and would probably get along quite well.

KedharS: Yep, but hopefully she can manage to pull out a win.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 790

Lila jumped a little as rain struck her window. The crashing thunder was making her shiver more than the draft. She quickly pumped the heat up with her remote and wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders.

At times like this, she wished she had a Fire type pokemon to warm things up a little.

Where was Darla? She hadn't responded to any of her messages, she hadn't even read them! Something murky was welling up in Lila's chest, and she the worries she'd been feeling earlier were starting to bubble up into full-blown panic.

Something was wrong. Something was really wrong, she just knew it. But she didn't know what to do, she was feeling too overwhelmed.

Darla, where are you? Please come back soon, I'm starting to-

A harsh knock on the door shook Lila out of her stupor. Her heart soared and she practically leapt out of bed.

Darla was back! Who else could it be?! It didn't matter anymore that she hadn't been answering her phone, because she'd finally come home!

Of course, in her joyous rush to the door to embrace her absent friend, it had completely slipped Lila's mind that Darla had a key to their room, so she wouldn't need to be knocking on the door in the first place.

So of course, when she opened the door, her world came crashing down.

Celia was surprised by how crestfallen Lila looked. It was like someone had shot her favorite pokemon. Lila looked so disappointed to see Celia at the door she almost felt insulted.

"Well, don't just invite me in," she murmured under her breath.

"O-Oh, sorry, I was… expecting someone else," Lila apologized, quickly pushing a smile back to her face. "I didn't think you would be here, um… Jonathan?"

"Oi girl if you're going to forget my name at least make up a girl's name," Celia said, her eye twitching in irritation.

"S-Sorry," Lila apologized again. She was all in a tizzy right now, she'd been so hopeful that Darla was coming, that she didn't even know how she was supposed to be reacting right now. Unfortunately, she still didn't know this girl's name.

"…I'm Celia," Celia finally bailed her out.

"Oh! That's right, I remember now!" Lila laughed.

"I've been a part of the Empress's organization since practically the beginning, you know," Celia muttered under her breath, but Lila didn't seem to hear.

"So, Celia, what can I help you with?" Lila asked her fellow blonde. "I'm in the middle of my spa treatments right now, and I'd prefer to not be bothered."

"I came here because the boss texted me to get in contact with you," Celia explained. "She said you're not replying to her texts."

"Texts? Wha- oh!" Lila gasped in realization, running over to her phone. She'd been so desperate to hear from Darla, she'd switched off the notifications for all her other contacts in order to block out the false hope. She checked her messages, and lo and behold she had a swarm from Olivia dating back nearly two hours asking for her to come to the hospital, with increasing frequency and emphasis on importance.

Lila looked sheepishly up at Celia. "Sorry to drag you into this, I just… I guess I wasn't thinking. I'll go and see her right now."

"Oh, it's not a problem at all! I'm just glad you were here so I could help, since it sounds really important!" Celia smiled back. While Lila's initial forgetting of who she was had been annoying, Celia wasn't the kind of girl who held a grudge. Lila had had a stressful past few days, no need to bother her any more than she had to!

She was a little worried about what might happen, though, since Olivia had asked Lila to meet up with her. If she had gone to the trouble of getting Celia involved, then whatever she wanted to talk to Lila about must have been important. She glanced out the window. "Make sure you bring your coat if you're heading out, it's looking pretty bad out there."

Lila held her head up proudly. "Don't worry about me," she boasted. "When it comes to designer coats to protect my wardrobe…" she skipped over to her closet, "…I've got plenty!" She pulled open the door and showed off her wide collection of rain jackets.

When it came to her clothes, Lila was not a girl who took chances.

"Well that's… impressive." Celia was at a loss for words. As the daughter of a major fashion mogul with an eye for fashion herself, she couldn't help but admire Lila's passion for her wardrobe. It was one of the things she liked about the idol (the extra business didn't hurt, either).

That being said, there was a point when it got just ridiculous.

Celia gave Lila a big, beaming smile. "Well, I said what I came to say, good luck, Lila, I'm going to head out now, I hope whatever the boss wants to talk to you about, it's nothing bad! Bad news on a day like this is just the worst! Take care, Lila!"

Lila smiled. She was glad that she had a friend like Celia, even if she occasionally forgot her name. Celia's sweetness and perkiness was one of the main inspirations for her character, and it was a relief to have that positivity in her corner. She waved goodbye to her friend and got changed into something casual as quickly as possible, before heading out herself.

The rain was a lot more intense than Lila had thought. It was coming down in buckets much to her chagrin, but she pushed on anyway.

It was rather amusing to think about the irony. Lila had spent the last two days complaining about the physical exertion she'd needed to undertake for the Toughness Competition. And yet when Olivia called on her to come talk, implicitly about Darla, Lila became Ayame Toujou all of a sudden and took off through campus.

Well, it was only reasonable to work this hard. She had to get to the Empress as soon as possible! This wasn't the time for lagging behind.

She hadn't mentioned her worries to Celia, but Darla's lack of a response had gone from "worry" to "freaking the fuck out and terrified that her best friend was dead in a ditch somewhere" levels of raw panic.

And the last time she had seen Darla, she had been going to see Olivia. In Lila's mind, that meant these events were connected.

Olivia had to know something. She and Darla must have talked about something serious, something that had sent Darla into radio silence, maybe even for Lila's own protection. Or, in a slightly more optimistic light, they were engaged in conversation right now, and Olivia had been texting her the whole time to get her to come over.

Whichever it was, the only thing Lila could think about right now was that she needed to get to Olivia as fast as possible. Then she would get her answers, whatever they were.

When she got to the hospital and Olivia's room, she was disappointed to see that Darla wasn't here, either. But unlike with Celia, she had the sense to keep her disappointment from showing on her face, trying her best to give the Empress a polite smile.

The fact that she was completely out of breath didn't help. She pulled back her hood and wiped the sweat and rain from her forehead, removing the ugly beanie that had kept her hair dry. She didn't mean to show such an appearance to Olivia, but she had spared no effort in getting here as quickly as she could.

"Hey, Olivia," Lila said awkwardly. She was desperate to ask questions about Darla, but she didn't want to look too eager or rude. The first thing she needed to do was apologize. "*gasp* Sorry about not getting *hngh* your messages! I wasn't *hah* looking at my phone, and I just-"

Olivia raised her hand. "Catch your breath first."

Lila sucked in air and nodded, taking a seat. Once she was at a point where she could breathe evenly, she opened her mouth to begin apologizing again, but Olivia shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, that's not important right now. We need to talk about Darla."

Lila gasped. That was exactly what she was waiting for! "Darla?! Where is she, is she okay? She didn't come back to the dorm, do you know where she is?!"

"Wait, wait, hold on, when you start talking it's impossible to stop you," Olivia said, settling Lila down. "I know where she is, and she's fine… probably."

"PROBABLY?!" Lila exploded. So much for niceties. If something was going wrong with Darla, then Lila would… she… well, it just better not happen! Darla had to be okay, she just had to be, or Lila didn't know what she would do!

"Let. Me. Explain." Olivia was getting tired of Lila's interruptions. "Listen. This is a really important issue, so I need you to sit down and be quiet, and I'll explain everything, okay? Don't lose your head over this, I need you calm."

Lila took a deep breath and tried to settle. Okay. Calm. Olivia needed calm. She could do calm. She was great at calm.

…

Why wouldn't she just get to the fucking point already!? This was driving her insane!

While Lila was losing her mind, Olivia was trying to figure out the best way to explain everything that had happened without causing any more unnecessary drama. She understood that Darla probably didn't want Lila to know what was going on, but at the same time this was something that involved her, too, and she needed to know the truth.

There was something bad going on with Darla and her family, and no amount of shielding would be enough if the worst came and Reed actually was planning to do something dangerous to Darla, or drag her back home.

So Olivia explained things as best she could, and just hoped that the dragon lover would find it in her heart to forgive her for this whole mess.

Olivia was explaining things to Lila, and trying to defend Darla and let Lila know what she was doing, but even she had no idea that what Darla was actually doing was fighting for her life.

And it wasn't a fight she was winning, either. She was struggling to keep her composure after having just seen Reed's Dragonite plunge her Salamence into the ocean, and there was only so much she could take.

"Crescent!" Darla shouted, running to the edge of the pier, her face white with shock. The water was choppy and the waves were getting wild due to the storm, and she couldn't make out any sign of her beloved pokemon.

Ayame was watching vigilantly herself, and she couldn't do much better. It was like Crescent and Alendra had been swallowed up by the ocean, and disappeared without a trace.

"Your Salamence might be a match for Alendra in the air, but under the water it's a different story," Reed said. The tone of her voice was almost apologetic. "I'm sorry to say it, but that's just how it works. Dragonite are amphibious dragons, while Salamence prefer the mountains. In a battlefield like this, I'll take advantage of whatever means necessary in order to assure my victory."

It was Reed's moment of triumph, but for once she wasn't smiling. She wiped the rain from her face and stared solemnly at Zinnia, not feeling any better about this than the other girl. She had given Alendra explicit instructions to bring Crescent up when he had lost consciousness, but that was a cold comfort given the circumstances.

In the end, as much as she knew that this test was necessary, and as much as she wanted to see Rayquaza with her own two eyes and experience a world with the greatest dragon ever filling it, she couldn't help but feel her cousin's pain.

Just a little bit longer, cousin, Reed silently promised. Just summon Rayquaza for me, and this can all be over.

But Darla was too broken to even consider summoning Rayquaza at this point. She was trying to stay strong for her pokemon, but her dragon force was dying down and there wasn't much she could do to keep it from sputtering out entirely.

"Crescent…" Her tears mixed with the rain that stained her face, and dripped down into the water. If she could just see some sign that-

"SALAMENCE!"

With a mighty roar, Crescent burst free of the water, his fangs squeezed tightly around Alendra's throat. He beat his wings and emerged with such fury that Darla was knocked back by the force of the waves, staring up at her dragon in shock.

"Crescent?!" She exclaimed, her chest swelling with equal parts hope and disbelief. It was, it really was him! He had fallen into the water, but he hadn't fallen!

"Whoa, that's amazing!" Reed gasped, her face brightening as well. She stared in amazement at the Salamence, almost unfazed by the fact that her own pokemon was trapped in his tight grip. "I would have thought that there was no way that a Salamence could ever beat a Dragonite underwater, but this is…"

Darla laughed, standing up and wiping her eyes. She laughed again. She found it as unbelievable as Reed, but she kept her head held high. "It's really something, huh?" She boasted, turning to the other girl in triumph. "Crescent… even I thought he was down for the count, but just look at him now, not giving an inch!"

Dragonic energy crackled in Crescent's mouth, and he fired a powerful dragon pulse that struck Alendra in the throat at point-blank range, sending the massive dragon flying out of his fangs and spiraling through the air.

Even Reed could see the damage wrought by such a powerful attack.

"Alendra!" She shouted, desperate for him to right himself. He did, and quickly, but the blood oozing down his scales made it clear he was seriously injured.

The problem was, Crescent wasn't doing much better. Flapping his wings, he flew down and hovered in the air next to Darla, and Darla could finally see up close just how much damage he had sustained in his underwater battle with the Dragonite.

Suffice to say, Crescent may have emerged the victor, but the if the dark bruises and oozing cuts were any indication, it wasn't by much.

"I'm sorry, partner," Darla apologized. She wanted him to take a second to heal himself with roost, but those were seconds they didn't have. If the two of them wanted to win this battle then they needed to defeat that Dragonite as fast as possible.

The problem was, "as fast as possible" was pretty damn slow when compared to Alendra's extremespeed attack.

"Dragonite!" Alendra flapped his wings and shot towards Crescent in a blur, raising his claws. Crescent didn't have the energy to dodge and took the hit in the side, nearly sending him into the water for a second time. But he spread his wings to act as a break and managed to catch himself as Alendra slowed down, weakened from the strain of his fight.

"Alendra, come back for a moment," Reed called. She could see that he couldn't take much more of this, and needed a second to rest. With their speed, they could afford luxuries that the other dragon couldn't at the moment.

"Dragonite," Alendra nodded, landing down in front of Reed and glaring across the pier at Crescent, who took his place ahead of his trainer and leveled a scathing glare at the opposing dragon.

"Your Salamence is marvelously trained, Zinnia," Reed complimented. "Truly, I'm impressed by how phenomenally you've trained him. And you're not even a dedicated pokemon trainer! It isn't many pokemon that can match Alendra so perfectly!"

"Thanks, I-"

"Don't get caught up in her flow, Darla!" Ayame shouted, interrupting Darla's retort. Darla flinched and looked at Ayame, surprised. She had genuinely forgotten that the other girl had been there, watching this whole exchange.

Ayame continued, "she's just trying to stall you while her Dragonite's condition improves! Now's your best chance!"

Darla turned back to Reed and smiled. "Thank you, Ayame. But I already knew that. And yes, now might be a great opportunity, but right now we have another one. Crescent, use roost!"

"Salamence," Crescent growled, landing on the pier and folding in his wings. He was taking the opportunity to restore his health, and he definitely needed it.

"Nicely done, Crescent, and once you're healed, we can really lay the hurt on that Dragonite," Darla promised.

Of course, Reed wasn't having any of that.

"You're rather bold, trying to heal right in front of us!" She commended with a grin. "But it won't go the way you want! We won't just let you heal! Alendra, let's use extremespeed one last time, and throw off that rhythm of theirs, go!"

"Dragonite!" Alendra flapped his wings and shot forward, raising his fist. He was slow. Slower than he had been before, due to the damage he had sustained. But as slow as he was, he was still faster than Crescent could react, soaring over the Salamence like a blur. Alendra raised his claw, bringing it down hard on Crescent's back.

"SALAMENCE!" Crescent roared in pain.

A wicked smile crossed Darla's face. "Thank you, Reed."

Reed blinked, surprised. "Oh?"

"Did you think… we were just healing?" Darla asked. She shook her head. "No, the roost attack was just bait. We needed to see your movements clearly."

Reed narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"Your Dragonite IS fast," Darla admitted. "So fast that no pokemon can match it when it's using extremespeed." She smirked. "…Unless, of course, that pokemon was using extremespeed themselves, isn't that right?"

"Salamence can't learn that move," Reed fired back.

Darla shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Oh, Reed, what was it you said? 'When it comes to dragons, nothing is impossible' or something along those lines?"

Reed froze.

"Sure, Salamence can't learn it naturally, but seeing it used so many times? Anyone would pick up a thing or two, especially seeing it up-close like that! We were just waiting for your Dragonite to reach his limits, when his speed started to flag just enough! Crescent, use mimic!"

"Salamence!" Crescent nodded, smirking victoriously. He flapped his wings and moved so fast he was a blue, slamming into a stunned Alendra and knocking him backwards.

"Alendra!" Reed cried.

"You were able to dodge our aerial ace before, remember?" Darla asked. "Now, let's see if you can dodge aerial ace and extremespeed when they're combined together!"

With a roar of triumph Crescent appeared behind Alendra, bringing down his claws and slamming the dragon into the dock so hard the pier cracked.

Alendra let out a roar of pain but Crescent didn't relent, raising his claws and viciously gouging into the other pokemon's scaly back as the rain washed over them both, blood spreading out to pool across the dock.

"Alendra, return!" Reed frantically recalled her Dragonite as the pokemon passed out. Darla smirked. It was the first time the other girl had really lost her cool.

"That's two of her pokemon down!" Ayame cheered. Darla was really doing it! "Nice work, Darla!"

But Darla didn't share in Ayame's joy. Crescent ambled back to her side and glared at Reed, and they waited in anticipation.

Darla knew that now wasn't the time for celebration. Reed had one more pokemon up her sleeve, and it was her trump card. The strongest Dragon type she had.

"…Zinnia, my sweet cousin… you really are amazing, you know that? I said that this was your test, but honestly… I didn't expect you to push me this far," Reed admitted, smiling with admiration. "But right now, it's all going to come to an end. Your Salamence is powerful, but you know what's coming, don't you?"

Darla nodded darkly, glaring through the rain. "Kingdra."

Reed held up her last pokeball and planted a kiss on it. "Like the storm itself, come to my side and lay waste to those who oppose me, Tamiya!" She shouted over the whipping winds, throwing the pokeball into the air. "Show my dear cousin just how badly I dream of her future as Loremaster, and the world only she can bring before my eyes!"

So Reed's last and strongest pokemon is a Kingdra! Will Darla be able to face this might sea dragon? Or will Reed's trump card serve to condemn her to a fate of returning to Hoenn and leaving Lila behind forever? Things are really heating up, what will Darla do?!