Alden has taken down Ange's Snorlax! Making full use of Corin's strength, he was able to defeat one of Ange's strongest pokemon! But is that enough to seize a commanding lead? It seems like Ange has something up her sleeve… what is it, and will Alden be strong enough to overcome it? We'll have to find out what she's hiding!

KedharS: Ange's certainly fighting evenly with Alden right now.

Hyphenman: When Corin's fighting at her strongest, it's a good idea not to underestimate her.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1126

Ange took a deep breath, calming herself down. She had already lost three of her pokemon. Two of her remaining pokemon were paralyzed. And yet, she looked completely serene, as if ths was all going according to plan.

But that was just on the surface. Deep inside, she was seething. There was a dark, primal rage burning in the depths of Ange's soul, the barely-restrained hatred of humanity that threatened to rise up at any given moment and consume her. But she refused to let it overwhelm her.

"You've lost three pokemon, Ange, why don't we just stop this?" Alden called over to her. He knew that trying to convince someone possessed by Samarra to give up and stop fighting was a rather pointless endeavor, but he couldn't help himself. Out of all the people being controlled by Samarra's brainwashing, Ange had come across as the most reasonable. If there was a chance at getting through to her, he had to try.

Of course, Alden had no way of knowing just how deep the rage in Ange's heart went, or how much contempt she held for humanity. She snorted and shook her head. "Ridiculous," Ange scoffed, reaching for her next pokeball. "You think I'm going to cry over a few of my pokemon falling in battle? Don't be ridiculous."

Rui, of all people, stepped in. "I don't understand!" She cried. "You keep talking about how much you hate fighting and pokemon battles, because of how harmful they are to pokemon! And yet you're still fighting yourself! Why is that? Doesn't it hurt, seeing your pokemon get injured? Defeated?" She asked. "So why?"

"Silence," Ange hissed, turning her eyes towards Rui. Rui flinched when she saw the contempt and hatred burning inside of them.

"You don't know anything," the blonde continued. "You're right. I can't stand the meaningless, empty fighting that goes on in pokemon colosseums, gym battles, and especially fights for 'fun' like those the Commander so thoughtlessly enjoys. To my eyes, those things are horrendous abuses of pokemon for the sake of people."

She clutched her pokeball so tightly her fingers went white, and clenched her teeth. "But this is a different matter altogether. This is a fight for survival. And that's something I know all too well, I assure you."

"A fight for survival?" Alden couldn't accept that. Ange had been spewing a lot of crap and he'd tried to ignore it, but at this point he couldn't take it anymore. "Ange, are you saying that the only time it's acceptable to fight is when your LIFE is on the line?!"

He couldn't imagine it. She had to be exaggerating. After all, in a modern society, a trainer might have maybe ONE battle in their lives where their life was really on the line. That was the only acceptable time? He couldn't believe someone would actually-

"Yes." Ange's response cut through all the excuses Alden was prepared to give, a harsh rebuke that left no room for disagreement. Alden flinched.

"B-But that's…" He didn't even have a good response. He'd had debates like this before about the value in fighting for fun, to let people and pokemon both release some of the tension that they'd built up inside. But he felt that those arguments would fall on deaf ears where Ange was concerned. The girl was so entrenched in her insane beliefs he almost forgot that Samarra's influence might have had something to do with it.

"Tell me something, Commander," Ange said quietly. "Have you ever observed the behavior of wild pokemon in the wild?"

"Wild… pokemon?" Alden blinked. "Of course I-"

"I'm not talking about seeing a few wild Pidgeys or some Ratattas," Ange quickly clarified. "I mean actual, dangerous wild pokemon living in their natural habitats, struggling to survive. Pokemon willing to do anything."

"I-I guess…"

"A lifetime ago," Ange cut him off, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to picture the reality she'd once been a part of, "I had the opportunity to see what wild pokemon were truly like. In an undiscovered frontier unlike that of anything we still have today. There weren't people living in harmony with pokemon or fighting for 'fun'. Every day was a constant struggle for survival, where will pokemon roamed rampant, living their lives, and human existence was a struggle for survival."

"…It sounds like a hard place to live," Alden admitted. "Even harder than the Orre Region. To be honest, I'd like to go there myself. If I could help the people living there see that pokemon battles can be fun, then-"

"It doesn't exist anymore," Ange snapped, startling the Commander. Her eyes were brimming with venom and her voice was filled with fury. "You won't find it anywhere in our world," she murmured, "not anymore…"

"Why not?" Alden asked curiously. "What happened to it?"

Under normal circumstances, Ange wouldn't reveal this to anyone. But she was being controlled by Samarra at the moment, and the other woman found this information intriguing. She removed Ange's pretense, giving her the freedom to reveal her true nature without worrying about the judgment of others, allowing her to finally expose one of the secrets that she'd held so deeply.

"Have you ever heard of time travel?" Ange asked.

Alden was caught off-guard by that statement. "Time… travel?"

"You mean like going to the past and future?" Anabel asked for clarification. "No way, that's just a myth, right?"

They turned to the others, but everyone else's expression was complex.

"It's… not," Vic mumbled, shaking her head. "My best friend… she was a time traveler."

"We've all met one," Rui said, nodding. "Along with a pokemon who can travel through time."

Ange raised her eyebrow. That was curious. Time travel… so there were other travelers as well? Samarra filed that information away for future use.

"The place I spoke of…" Ange murmured, "exists only in the past."

Rui gasped. "The…"

"…Past?!" Vic finished.

Ange nodded. "A world called Hisui, the place that would one day become the Sinnoh Region. Several years ago, I was transported there, by a pokemon known as Arceus."

No one had ever heard of that pokemon before. Ange ignored their confused expressions and continued. It felt good, to reminisce about that world.

"Hisui was a harsh region, the entire world was harsh back then. No cities or skyscrapers, merely small towns trying their hardest to survive. The countryside was untouched of pollution and decay, and the pokemon… they were free. They wandered abound, through the wild expanse of the unsettled frontier, without having to hide away in caves and tall grass."

She closed her eyes and recalled that distant place. She could practically see it in front of her. So close she could reach out and touch it.

"…It was paradise," she murmured, slowly opening her eyes. "Pure."

Alden and the others were uncomfortable. No one quite knew how to respond to Ange's words. She was describing something beyond any of their comprehension. All of Alden's arguments were tailored to the world they lived in, but Ange… she was focused on an idyllic past that she was clearly desperate to recapture, a pipe dream that could never exist in the modern day.

She knew that, of course.

"This world… it sickens me," Ange spat. "People speak of the danger and savagery of the past, where people struggled to survive against the threat of wild pokemon… but no one thinks to imagine that things were actually better back then… that people and pokemon were both free, in ways that we could never be in this prison of 'progress'."

"But that world you're describing… isn't it dangerous?!" Rui asked, unable to believe that anyone could want to live in a place like Ange was describing. Having lived in the Orre Region all her life she had little experience with wild pokemon, but she knew how dangerous they were. A world where they just roamed free, preying on humans… it sent a shiver down her spine.

"…So what?" Ange asked, and her words sent a chill down everyone's spines. The words she followed with were even more unnerving. "Have you ever wondered that maybe the danger of the past is what makes it worth living in?"

"I-I don't…" Rui just couldn't understand it.

"Back in those days, my life was constantly in danger," Ange said, shaking her head. "Can you even imagine? A little girl, trapped in another world, where wild pokemon sought to kill her at every turn, just because she couldn't defend herself? That was my life. For four long years I lived in that place, struggling to survive."

She clenched her fist. "What is it that the people in the Orre Region always say?" She mused. "'Weakness is a sin'? You reject those words as wicked, but you have no idea how true they really are. Of course, the people of Orre use them in such a twisted, warped way. After all they've done to destroy their home, and the wild pokemon that inhabited it, the idea that they have any knowledge of what merits a 'sin' is laughable. But me… if I had been weak, I would have died a thousand times over. But I didn't. Hisui was the fire that forged me into the person I am today. It was only by surviving there that I realized… human beings are the ones who are weak. We refuse to adapt to the world around us. Rather, we FORCE the world to adapt to US. With our greed and cruelty we make others suffer, and for what? For survival? No. We do it just to make things more convenient."

No one had the words to repudiate Ange's claim. Not while they stood in the Orre Region, the beacon of human destruction and corruption.

"My pokeballs were forged by my own hand," Ange continued. "Not made in some factory. I crafted them myself, from materials I scavenged for in the wild. My partners… they joined me because they believe in me and befriended me, not because I forced them to stay. Our modern technology makes it so easy to be a pokemon trainer, even little children can force pokemon to bend to their will and then make them fight for entertainment. But we… we fight in order to survive."

Alden frowned. So that was why Ange never took part in tournaments. She didn't fight unless she had to, because she viewed every pokemon battle as a struggle for survival, as if she were still trapped in the world of the past. It was like he was staring at his own antithesis.

"Enough talking," she scowled, flinging her pokeball into the air. "Mami! Eliminate that Lucario!" Her words were full of hatred and venom, and for a second Alden could see all that rage she'd been bottling up.

"Persian!" Mami snarled, emerging from her pokeball. She glared across the battlefield at Corin.

"So she's still going through with this," Rui winced.

"Of course she is," Vic muttered, shaking her head. "You heard her, didn't you? 'Weakness is a sin'." Those words had always tormented Vic, ever since she was a little girl. But now she was looking at someone who believed them even stronger than the people of Orre ever had.

Alden ignored the others and focused on the fight. He couldn't deny that Ange's words had shaken him, and the things she described were definitely making him curious. But he couldn't let himself get swept up, he had a battle to win. If there was one thing Ange was right about, it was that this was a fight he couldn't afford to lose.

He watched the Persian cautiously. There was a very good chance that Ange had sent out her Zoroark once again.

"Corin, careful," he warned. "We have to-"

"Confuse ray!" Ange snarled.

She wasn't even trying to hide it. Luci shed her disguise, conjuring an orb of eerie light that zigzagged across the battlefield, confusing Corin and making it difficult for her to focus. Her aura shook erratically and she couldn't gather her strength, which was exactly what Ange was hoping for.

"Now, u-turn!" She ordered. Luci leapt forward and slammed into the dazed Lucario, knocking her backwards as she returned to her pokeball. Now it was time for who she was really using this time, and she sent out her next pokemon.

"Persian!" Mami emerged from her pokeball for real, hissing angrily. She dashed across the battlefield, claws extended.

"Mami, use fake out!"

"Persian!" Mami nodded. As Corin rose to her feet she received a clawed strike to the face that knocked her over, making her flinch. She was too confused to gather her aura, which was exactly where Mami wanted her to be.

"You paralyzed Mami to limit her speed, but we're fine with that," Ange said. "Because you won't be able to stand up to this. Psych up!"

"Persian!" Mami roared, and the ruby on her forehead flashed.

"No!" Anabel gasped, knowing how bad that would be.

"This isn't good," Vic said, biting her lip. She wanted to believe in the Commander, but she was petrified by this strategy.

Alden narrowed his eyes. "…So that's what you were after."

Ange smirked. "You strengthened your Lucario so much, trying to defeat Beel. And now, won't you let Mami share in some of that generous power?"

Mami perfectly copied Corin's stat boosts, and now her attack was maximized. Her defense received a slight boost as well from the previous iron defense that Corin had used, and now she was one dangerous Persian.

"You might have copied our stats, but we still have the advantage," Alden snapped as Corin snapped out of confusion. "Corin, use bullet punch, and follow it with a brick break!"

"Lucario!" Corin nodded, shaking her head clear. She ran across the battlefield towards the Persian at blinding speed, raising her fist to unleash a punch.

Ange smirked.

"PERSIAN!" Mami opened her mouth and released a dreadful roar, disturbing Corin's aura and making the Fighting type pokemon falter. Corin stumbled back and began to glow red, and against her will she was forced back into her pokeball.

"That was roar!" Vic gasped. That really wasn't good.

"Sorry, about that," Ange snickered. "You spent all that time building up your Lucario's attacking strength with those swords dances, and in the end, all they did was make my Mami even more powerful than she already was."

"…I have to say, that's quite a good move," Alden admitted. "I was expecting all sorts of stuff when I saw that you were just letting Corin build up her power, but this wasn't something I was thinking. You got us, that's for sure."

"Of course I did," Ange smirked. Then her expression darkened. "Someone like you, who just has your pokemon fight for convenience couldn't begin to imagine what we're fighting for."

"No, I think I get it," Alden said, making conversation as he considered his options. "You've made your point more than clear. But see… that's not something I can afford to worry about, Ange. Because you can't imagine what I'm fighting for."

Ange was taken aback by that. She stared blankly at the Commander. All her life she'd been used to people not understanding her, from when she was a child living with the professor, to her time in Hisui, to when she returned to the present and saw all the nightmares of the modern world.

But this was the first time someone had said that she didn't understand their motivations. And she didn't know what to say.

"You don't have to say anything," Samarra whispered into her heart. "Someone like that will never understand you and what you've been through. No one in this world will. The only one who could is me. That's why you have to keep fighting. For my sake…"

Ange felt reinvigorated from Samarra's support. Humans were sick and twisted creatures, but Samarra wasn't like the others. Like the professor, she truly accepted Ange for who she was, and supported her. And for that reason, Ange would prove herself worthy of that support.

"That's right, believe in me, like I believe in you," Samarra continued, taking the doubts in Ange's heart and twisting them against her. "You need to win. If you're strong, you live. If you're weak, you die. That's the truth you've lived your life by, isn't that right?"

"That's right," Ange whispered, clenching her fist. "Weakness is a sin… if you're strong, you live, and if you're weak, you die, and I'M the one who deserves to live!" Her statement grew louder and louder as she spoke, ending on a shout. Mami howled with her.

Alden winced. The pressure coming off of Ange was intense. "I can't imagine ever being that twisted," he admitted. "But it doesn't matter. Right now, I have to defeat you! Jaune, go!"

"Vika!" Jaune emerged from his pokeball with a buzz, flying towards Mami. Electricity crackled through his mandibles and he prepared to release it in a discharge at the Persian.

Ange narrowed her eyes. She wasn't amused. "You think that's enough? Mami! Aerial ace!"

"Persian!" Mami disappeared, reappearing behind Jaune. She raised her claw and swung it at Jaune, hitting him in the back. Jaune spiraled through the air and crashed into the ground, injured.

"Look at that power!" Anabel gasped. This wasn't good.

"Vika…" Jaune had just come out, and he already looked done for. He tried to get up, but even paralyzed Mami was still faster. She began to glow gold.

"You're the one who paralyzed her, isn't that right?" Ange asked, narrowing her eyes. She was fully in tune with her Persian. "Well, we'll let you have a taste of it. Façade!"

"Persian!" Mami released the energy she'd built up, and the burst of power slammed into Jaune, knocking him unconscious.

Alden recalled Jaune to his pokeball. He'd lost his second pokemon, and it felt like now HE was the one on the defensive.

Wow, that's really something. Ange was at a real disadvantage with Alden using Corin boosted with swords dance, but she was still able to overcome him with a few tricks from her pokemon! But that wasn't the most shocking revelation. The true surprise is learning that Ange isn't just some cynical hater of humanity, she's a time traveler!