With Reed's strongest pokemon taking the field, the test has reached its climax! Will Darla be able to overcome the power of Reed's Kingdra?
KedharS: But this last pokemon is quite the powerhouse.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Oh, you have no idea how powerful a Kingdra can be in the right hands.
JoshGamerV: Thanks, it's quite an achievement! Next we're shooting for 5 million!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 791
There was only one Dragon type pokemon that Darla had ever been intimidated by, even when she was a child.
It wasn't Salamence and their piercing glare, massive wings, and giant fangs, nor was it Haxorus and their wicked tusks, which could cleave boulders in two, or even Hydreigon and their vicious temper, destroying everything in their path.
The Dragon type that intimidated her was Kingdra.
And it wasn't because Kingdra were especially threatening. They lacked the fangs, claws, and wings of other, far more frightening dragons, in fact, their elegance and beautiful scales would make them a beautiful sight to the eye.
Indeed, simply looking at one, you would see nothing but a graceful dragon that should be admired, not feared. There was nothing that would naturally inspire such trepidation and nervousness in Darla's heart.
No, her fear of Kingdra was a behavior that had been entirely learned.
Before she had yearned for other things with her life, she had trained with Reed a few times in their childhood. Reed had quite often shown her just how powerful her Kindra was in the waters of Meteor Falls, and the brutality of those losses had ingrained within Darla a fear of the dragon and what it was capable of.
But that was then. Back when she was Zinnia.
Darla wasn't Zinnia anymore. She wasn't going to lose to something like that!
"Don't think I'll give in so easily!" Darla shouted at Reed in defiance of the dragon about to make its appearance.
The pokeball burst open, and Reed's Kingdra emerged. She was just as Darla remembered, sleek and fierce with scales as blue as the sea and eyes as red as blood. Her long snout threatened powerful attacks like the muzzle of a gun, and the way she flexed her fins as she spun through the air towards the water promised her speed.
"Kingdra!" Tamiya roared, and the wind seemed to roar with her. The rain poured down heavier and the tides began to whip up, pounding against the soaking pier.
Reed's dragon force was burning, a stark contrast to Darla's which was starting to lose its steam. Darla clenched her teeth and made a fist, standing firm in the face of the threatening pokemon, even as her heart trembled.
Fear was a strange thing. Darla was standing above the Kingdra, looking down on it from where she stood on the pier. But she felt like the dragon was towering over her all the same, overwhelming her with its presence.
No… I'm not the scared little girl! Crescent and I, we can do this!
"Crescent!" She shouted. "Don't give her time to think! Use dragon pulse!"
"Salamence!" Crescent roared, opening his mouth and firing a blast of draconic energy at the water-bound pokemon.
Reed smirked. "Come now, Zinnia, you should know better than that! Tamiya won't be hit." Easily dodging the dragon pulse by pushing herself forward, Tamiya moved so fast Darla couldn't even follow her.
"Kingdra!" Tamiya propelled herself through the waves, moving at speeds that were unreal. Even with the boost to his speed by dragon dance, Crescent couldn't compare.
"This field is perfect for my Tamiya," Reed cooed. "And this storm, pumping up her Swift Swim ability, makes it so she'll never be caught!"
"I know that!" Darla spat. Swift Swim was something she was all too familiar with. "But even that ability has limits, you know!"
"Of course it does," Reed smirked. "After all, not even with Swift Swim could Tamiya expect to compete with Alendra's extremespeed."
Reed tapped her finger to her chin, and her eyes widened in realization. "Oh! But wait, you copied Alendra's extremespeed before, with your mimic attack! Oh, no, how could I have miscalculated so gravely?! Reed, you fool!"
The theatricality of her self-admonishment was pissing Darla off.
"Reed…" She growled.
Reed sobered up, holding her hand over her smirk to suppress her laughter. "Sorry, sorry, but I can't help but wonder… considering you were more than aware of Tamiya's Swift Swim, and went to so much trouble copying Alendra's extremespeed… why would you use dragon pulse when you knew it would miss? Not to mention, the fact that your Salamence is far better suited to physical attacks rather than dragon pulse, I just can't understand what you were thinking, Zinnia," she sighed, tapping her cheek in contemplation.
Darla's eye twitched.
"Unless… wait! That must be it!" Reed gasped. Her smirk deepened. "That's right, Zinnia, in all the times you fought against Tamiya and I… you were never able to overcome her, were you? That's what this is, isn't it?"
"Shut up," Darla whispered, her heart pounding with anxiety. She didn't want to hear this. She didn't want Reed prying into her heart the way she was.
"You're afraid," Reed purred, putting words to the tension in Darla's heart.
"N-NO!" Darla shouted, desperately trying to turn the lie in the truth. "I'm not afraid! I'm not!" But with every word, it only became more obvious.
"You've lost so many times to Tamiya, you hesitated. You were too afraid to risk your Salamence in a direct attack, even if you had the speed advantage, so you chose the safe play, attacking her from range, even when you knew it was futile." Reed's words were said with levity, but the harshness they carried couldn't be denied.
"Shut up, just shut up!" Darla shouted. "Don't you dare peek into my heart! I'm not afraid of your Kingdra! Crescent and I are strong enough that we can defeat it now!"
Her dragon force returned with a vengeance, blazing wildly.
As afraid as she was of that Kingdra, Darla's will wouldn't be shaken. I have to do this. I have to win. If I don't, then I'll be forced back into that life. Never again… I promised Lila… I promised her that I would be by her side.
Lila's face entered her mind. Her lovely smile, that light in her eyes, the way she looked at Darla, like she was seeing her for her, and not as the Lorekeeper.
…And I also… want to be by Lila's side.
Reed smiled. Yes, that's exactly right, Zinnia. Give it everything you have. Use every last ounce of your power. And when you've finished, and there's nothing left for you to do… when I've pushed you to the very brink, then… then you'll show me the world I want to see.
"If you're not afraid, then show me what you're made of!" Reed called.
"You bet I will! Crescent, use extremespeed!" Darla ordered.
"Salamence!" Crescent roared, spreading his wings wide. He'd recovered much of his health from roost, and his strength was seeing a second wind as Darla's dragon force burned, and he took to the sky in attack.
Only Ayame could see what was going on.
"What are you doing, Darla?!" She shouted. "Are you insane? Can't you see that she's obviously baiting you?! Don't fall for it!"
Ayame didn't need to see that Kingdra's condition to know how powerful it was, and she didn't have to be an expert in human psychology to know that Reed was playing Darla like a fiddle and goading her to attack.
But Ayame's words fell on deaf ears. With her dragon force blazing the only thing Darla would listen to is her own will, her desire to win.
Crescent was like a bullet, moving so fast he could scarcely be seen. Streaks of red across a blurry blue line in the sky, aiming for the Kingdra, who might as well have been standing still.
Reed smiled.
And suddenly, like crashing into a wall that wasn't there, Crescent came to a screeching halt. Frozen in the sky, wings not even flapping, he couldn't move a muscle as he struggled helplessly against an invisible force.
"Crescent!" Darla cried in horror. "What's going on?! Why did you stop?!"
Reed began to laugh, and Darla's head whipped around to glare at the other woman.
"What did you do?!"
"It's a special little move called disable, sweet girl," Reed giggled. "Your Salamence has been using extremespeed so much… what was it, again? Something like 'Seeing it used so many times?' and 'Anyone would pick up a thing or two?' well, you can think of it like that! Disable allows me to totally halt a move you've used before, any move at all, even extremespeed! And now, any time you try to use that move, Crescent will be frozen, just like that!"
"That's a dirty trick!" Darla snarled.
"This is a test. There are no dirty tricks," Reed replied. "Considering that was my move in the first place, it's only fair that I should be allowed to put a halt to it, wouldn't you agree?"
"Reed…" Darla hissed. But Reed wouldn't be stymied.
"Now, look at your precious Salamence, Zinnia. Frozen and helpless, unable to even dodge. What a quandary!" Reed laughed. "I wonder…"
Darla's attention immediately shot back to her pokemon. "No! Crescent! You've gotta get free somehow!" But Crescent was stuck.
"Tamiya, let's start with an ice beam!" Reed ordered.
"Kingdra!" Tamiya raised her snout and flexed, a beam of devastating icy power shooting forth and striking Crescent in the wing.
"SALAMENCE!" Crescent roared in pain, the light from disable fading. He spiraled towards the water as Tamiya prepared another shot.
"Finish it with another one," Reed commanded. But Darla wouldn't be cowed.
"Crescent! Quickly, you need to right yourself!" She pleaded. Crescent's eye snapped open and he felt power shooting through his body. With a roar he spread his injured wing and flapped hard, picking up just in time to dodge the ice beam and turn towards the pier.
"Oh, no you don't," Reed laughed. "We won't let you get away! Go, Tamiya!"
Without extremespeed, Crescent couldn't hope to compare with Tamiya in this storm. The Kingdra shot forward, pulling up and out of the water until only the bottom of her tail was submerged, propelling herself with massive force as she prepared another ice beam, this one hitting Crescent directly in the back.
With a howl of pain Crescent pitched out of the sky, tumbling forward and rolling across the pier, coming to a stop before Darla's horrified eyes.
Calling out to her pokemon, Darla rushed to his side to check his condition. He was injured, critically, but he wasn't finished just yet.
"I believe I've made my point clear," Reed mused, flipping her blonde locks out of her sparkling eyes as she looked down at trainer and pokemon. "Zinnia, you are an exceptional trainer, even if you limit yourself to this… strangeness you call contests. But as strong as you are, that can't compare to my dragons and I, and we both know it. Let's end this ridiculousness about you only using three pokemon, or else you really will fail this test."
Ayame opened her mouth, about to agree with Reed, when she saw the fire in Darla's eyes. She held her tongue.
"I won't!" Darla shouted. Her eyes were filled with tears and her voice was hoarse. "I am sick and tired of you always looking down on me! My pokemon… I can defeat you fair and square! My dragons won't lose to yours!"
Reed considered her words quietly, and then let out a sigh of disappointment. The smile was gone from her face.
"You really don't understand, do you?" She asked, shaking her head and looking back out across the sea. "You're the Lorekeeper, but you don't understand what that title means. Or what it means to be a Dragon Master."
Reed turned her eyes back towards Darla, and Darla couldn't help but shrink a little in the face of the light burning through them.
Then Reed snapped her fingers, and sea burst open with a howl. A might spout of water shot up towards the clouds, and perched atop it was Tamiya, glaring down at them all. Waves and spouts of water danced around her as the rain intensified, lightning crackling through the clouds as the sky threatened to tear itself apart.
"This is what a dragon is, Zinnia," Reed calmly stated. "For all you might love them, you've failed to truly understand their potential."
With a sigh, Reed gazed up at the heavens, a warm smile spreading across her face as she closed her eyes.
"Dragons aren't like ordinary pokemon. They aren't mere creatures to do battle. They're unstoppable forces of nature, part of the planet itself! With a thought they can summon blizzards and create thunderstorms, summon hurricanes and tsunamis, rip apart the very ground itself! The land, sea, and sky are the domain of these mighty beasts, the ultimate in pokemon potential that make the world itself bend its knee in reverence!" Reed's words were louder than the storm, proclaiming her love of dragons with such reverence that even Ayame was stunned.
"Zinnia, to master dragons is not to control them, it's to give oneself up to them fully," Reed swooned. "Dragons are perfect, the ideal! In them, I find my joy, in them, I find my bliss! Until you understand the full weight of what you're capable of, you can never pass my test, no matter how hard you try! Tamiya, it's time. Laser focus!"
"Kingdra!" Tamiya howled, the wind carrying her cry like the wail of a banshee. She raised her snout to the clouds and began to focus her energy, gathering it together for something. Whatever it was, Darla knew that her time was running out.
"I won't… I won't lose…" she wailed, more out of desperation than true conviction. "Crescent… Crescent is strong enough to win!"
"Salamence!" Crescent roared, rising to his feet. He was beaten and battered, but as long as Darla's dragon force burned he wouldn't give up.
"You don't understand, Zinnia, opposing my Tamiya is like fighting the storm itself," Reed calmly rebuffed her. "You must have felt it, once. The pride of dragons is the dragon pulse, or have you forgotten? The flow of energy through the earth, where we draw the power for our dragon force, and take the power of the dragon as our own. You can feel it even now, can't you?" She asked, pointing at the blazing aura around Darla.
Darla's only response was a piercing glare.
Reed sighed.
"Zinnia, when you summoned Rayquaza to your side, at that time, we all felt your connection through the dragon pulse. That attunement to nature when you summoned that godlike pokemon was unlike anything we'd ever felt before. You, more than anyone, should be able to understand the true nature of the Dragon type, so why won't you give yourself over to it now?"
Ayame didn't understand what this woman was talking about. As far as she could tell, wasn't Darla already fighting with her dragon force?
"If I give myself over to that power, then I would lose myself," Darla cried. "And I won't do that again, we're more than powerful enough to stop you! Go, Crescent! While she's charging, use that move, your strongest! Outrage!"
"SALAMENCE!" Crescent roared, and for an instant, the storm ebbed. Crescent gathered energy from around him and began to burn, soaring into the sky as lightning crackled around the blazing corona of blue flames.
"What do you think, Reed? This is the power of a dragon! Isn't that what you wanted to see?" Darla demanded.
Reed blinked. "Yes, outrage. That's what you would want to do. The strongest dragon move there is. Of course… you know that's not quite true, don't you?"
The moment of triumph Darla felt turned to ash as the sky began to burn around her.
"You should know what's coming," Reed solemnly stated. "The true finale of the Dragon type, a move without equal. A gift from Rayquaza itself, the power to control the force of the earth and sky, and even the heavens themselves!"
Darla mouthed "no" as she saw the light begin to pierce through the stormclouds up above. No, it couldn't be.
Like a judge delivering sentence, Reed's command was sharp and stern.
"Draco meteor."
The sky broke as a massive meteor pushed past it, falling from the heavens like judgment from a deity upon Crescent.
For a brief instant, the world went white, and Darla accepted her fate.
The meteor struck Crescent directly, there was nowhere to run. Like dropping a boulder upon a flickering campfire the outrage attack was extinguished, and the meteor fell upon its target with a deafening crash.
Ayame barely had time to jump into the water as the dock exploded behind her, shards of wood and metal flying in all directions as the meteor smashed it to bits. She was actually washed ashore from the force of the tidal wave, slamming hard into the sand as she saw red. The ache in her bones and the water flooding her lungs were the only signs that she was still alive.
Darla didn't fare much better. While Ayame had the cover of water to blunt the blow, she had been standing right in the line of fire when the world exploded. She'd been launched into the sand with such ferocity that she half-expected to die. If not for Crescent's last act to wrap his body around her and shield her from the impact, she very well might have.
Darla felt like her bones had been ground into powder. But to her shock, everything still worked. And to her horror, Crescent had fallen. There was no way he could continue, he was just as lucky as she to still be breathing.
"Crescent," she choked out. She raised her head and looked around frantically. "Reed?!"
In the heat of the moment, Darla's first thought went to her cousin, who had also been standing on the pier as the meteor obliterated it. But she needn't have worried. Perched like an archangel atop a church, Reed stood upon the meteor and gazed down coldly at Darla, holding out her hands.
"This is what it means to be a Dragon Master, Zinnia."
Darla hung her head in defeat. There was nothing she could do. How could she compete, with such overwhelming power? The draco meteor she had taught Melody was a pale imitation of the real thing, like the difference between a flung pebble and a cannon ball.
"You know that none of your pokemon can hope to defeat me, Zinnia," Reed called down to her. "So what will you do? If you wish to withdraw from the test now, I will take you back with me to Blackthorn, and keep you safe."
"I… I…"
"If you can't even defeat me, then how can you hope to protect yourself?" Reed demanded. "The Lorekeeper is not someone to die in a place like this. If you want to stay, then prove to me you have the power to do it! And I don't mean with your pokemon, or that pitiful imitation you call dragon force! You have to seize the power of the earth, the strength of the world of dragons, and make it your own! You know what you need to do, Zinnia, so why are you hesitating?"
Reed was absolutely right. It killed Darla to admit it, but she was. She recalled Crescent to his pokeball and stood up, taking a shaky step forward into the sand and feeling her power flow through her and ease her pain. But it felt so hollow and empty compared to the power burning in front of her. Power that could be hers if she just… let go.
Darla didn't have anything left. She couldn't lose here. She couldn't fail this test. But none of her pokemon had a chance to win. Only one of them did. She closed her eyes and summoned her dragon force.
"Never again."
That had been what she'd promised Lila. That she'd never use that power again. Even when she'd made that promise, Darla had known that the day would come when she would have to break it. She just hadn't expected that day to be now.
Rayquaza.
It was the only option left.
"There's a good girl," Reed murmured. "Yes, Zinnia. That's the only path left for you, isn't it? To embrace that power and enter the world of dragons, to welcome the strength of our god and make it your own, that's your calling as a Lorekeeper!"
With the power of Rayquaza… even if it might destroy me… I can secure my place here with Lila. To that end, I-
"DARLA!"
Darla's eyes snapped open. That voice… it couldn't be!
She whipped her head back to see Lila running down the bank, landing in the sand as she shouted hoarsely. "Darla!"
"Lila?! What are you doing here-?!" Darla sputtered in disbelief. "It's not safe here, get back!"
"I… I had to come!" Lila panted, her legs carrying her forward even as she felt too weak to stand. "I heard… what was happening… and I… I couldn't let… couldn't let you go… I needed… needed to come… I…"
Ayame sighed with relief, flopping back in the sand. The minute this absurd "test" had started, she'd texted Olivia immediately. The Empress must have done as Ayame had hoped and called Lila in to stop this whole mess.
Lila took a moment to catch her breath, and then flashed Darla a shaky smile. "Go, Darla. You can do it. And then… come back to me, okay?"
Darla felt the light of Lila's loving gaze push away the power he had just been calling on. It was so strange, but even without dragon force it felt like her wounds were healed, just at the sight of that smile.
"Sorry, Reed, but I… won't call Rayquaza again," she vowed, staring adamantly up at her cousin. "You see, with how much you've been using that name, calling me Lorekeeper, I'd… forgotten. I'm not Zinnia anymore… and I'm not the Lorekeeper either."
She smiled.
"I'm Darla Drake! The cool beauty with the heart of a dragon!" She cheered. "So you can keep Rayquaza… your dragon god… because to me, there's only one goddess whose light I need to shine on me."
Darla beamed at Lila, and Lila felt her face heat up and her heart skip a beat.
"And with her watching over me, I can't bear to do something so uncool." Darla clutched her last pokeball tightly, and flung it into the sky.
That's right… it all started that day, with you. I don't need something like the power of the world of dragons. Because you showed me a world… that was so much brighter.
"Altaria!" The pokeball burst open, and in a flash of brilliant light Melody emerged, her song like the choir of angels.
Darla has rejected the power of Rayquaza that Reed tempted her with, and has relied on the bond she shares with Lila, instead! The test comes to its thrilling conclusion!