Things aren't going well over in Agate Village. As they wait for Samarra to attack, all they can do is feel more pressured and more uncomfortable. And that's definitely not a good thing. Hopefully, Alden and the others will make it back before she can launch her assault, but until then it's nothing but tense waiting and hoping. Not exactly the best when you're dealing with people who have as complex interpersonal relationships as those around us!

KedharS: That's probably her main goal, yeah. Make as many friends as possible.

Hyphenman: Those are some good thoughts about who could be responsible for being the traitor. And I left it vague on purpose. I suppose we'll have to see who is still under Samarra's influence and who isn't when we get to the climax!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1134

Alcea was enjoying a nice cup of tea in Rui's living room to wake her up, as she did every morning. It was reinvigorating and relaxing, and a nice preparation for the day's events. It helped that she was in such a lovely place. While enjoying the tea's lovely fragrance she could stare out the window and admire the gorgeous scenery before her. While things would certainly be getting tense very soon, right now she could at least enjoy the quiet.

"Um…"

She glanced up from the window to see Olivia standing over her. In her hands was… a tray of freshly-baked cookies.

"S-So, I know that I'm not really the type, and I don't do a lot of cooking," the other girl hastily admitted. "Unless you count, like, poffins and stuff like that. But I… I really tried hard baking these for you! So if… if you want, maybe…?"

Alcea was astounded that the proud and confident Olivia Himeko had actually gone to the trouble of preparing her a snack for tea.

AAaaaah! She's so adorable! How can a human being be this precious?! Alcea screamed internally while maintaining a poker face Dokukage would be proud of.

"Oui," she answered, taking a cookie. "It would be my pleasure to try one, is it?"

She selected a cookie from the tray and raised it to her lips as Olivia looked on anxiously, hoping everything would taste okay. This was the first time she'd ever cooked something for human consumption, and while the Appeals Course had a few cooking classes, she'd only ever focused on bringing out the appeal of her pokemon, and not her culinary skills.

Alcea smiled warmly. "Délicieuse," she said, and Olivia practically fainted on the spot out of sheer pleasure.

"Ugh, this is revolting," Darla muttered. She was sitting on the couch and watching the sickening display, finding it impossible to believe that THIS was the Empress she'd grown to respect over the last three years at the Pokemon Academy.

"Come on, Darla, I think it's sweet!" Lila smiled. "Don't you?"

"Ugh, no," Darla said, rolling her eyes. "Who on earth would want someone fawning over you like that? I can't imagine it."

"…Aren't you an idol?" Lukas asked incredulously.

Darla put on the most fake smile in the world. "Well, it's, like, different when I'm doing it for work!" She replied in a high-pitched, mocking voice. Then she turned to Lila. "That's you. That's what you sound like."

Lila made a dirty expression.

"Ignore her," a gruff voice said from behind them. It was Erik, who had a grim look on his face. "There's no use trying to explain something like that to her, when she doesn't have a heart in the first place," he muttered, glancing away.

A dark look crossed Darla's face, but she didn't get the chance to reply because Lila immediately came to her defense.

"Don't talk that way about her!" Her partner cried. "Darla's a wonderful person!"

"Lila, just forget it," Darla sighed, shaking her head. There wasn't any point in standing up for her, not to someone like him.

Indeed, Erik didn't seem to care about Lila's staunch defense of her partner. He just turned back to what he was doing, which was apparently not much.

The students in the Ranger Course, that is, Andre and Erik, as well as Andrea, were in kind of a difficult situation at the moment. They were all expecting an attack to come. But they didn't use their pokemon for fighting. So what could they do, if something like that happened?

Andre had suggested contacting the authorities, but Andrea had quickly nixed that idea.

"It would take too long for them to get here," she explained. "If they'll even be any help at all." The police in the Orre Region were infamously corrupt. Even so, as Wes had explained, that was mostly due to stereotypes from 25 years ago, and didn't mean anything in the context of today. While they still weren't totally effective at coming down on the increases in crime, they were better than the outright corrupt officers of the past.

The real concern that Wes had was that he doubted they'd be able to get here in time to make any difference, let alone reinforcements from the Ranger HQ. They had called the rangers immediately, of course, but things were busy and the people there said they might not be able to send anyone out for at least a couple days, if not a week.

Wes had the sinking suspicion that no one there took the issue seriously.

So it was up to them.

Andrea explained that the duty Erik and Andre had, as well as anyone else who wasn't confident in their abilities to fight, was to help guide civilians out of the danger zone. There was no telling what sort of damage Samarra could cause if left unchecked.

As the days passed, people were getting anxious. There was real danger here. Hiromi had contacted the school officials, who had informed her that the most important thing to do was leave the village. They wanted her to evacuate the children to safety, and of course she wanted that too, but she feared they'd be in even more danger trying to get down the mountain.

This was really a dangerous situation to be in, wasn't it?

Maddi felt that way.

Ever since the battle between Gerard and the Commander, things had been incredibly difficult for the girl. The way Wes had explained it, she was the most important person there.

That didn't make her feel better. Samarra was attacking Agate Village in order to get to her. And while she wouldn't necessarily categorize anyone here as a "friend", she felt uneasy about being the reason they were all in danger.

That uneasiness and the tension in the room led her to do something that she would never consider under normal circumstances. She went to go see Ayame.

Ayame did not look well. She'd been tied up for several days at this point, only let out of her chair to use the bathroom, and even then it was done at armed guard. Her clothing and hair were both disheveled and she looked and smelled like she'd come out of steamy changing area at a gym.

Wes had decided to lock her up in their daughter's room for safety, so she couldn't leak anything. But Maddi suspected she'd been eavesdropping regardless. Which was why, when Ayame saw her enter the room, she didn't seem all that surprised.

"Hello Madison," Ayame greeted her with a smile that looked out of place on her usually-stern visage, and especially didn't make sense when considering how much she'd been through these last few days while tied up.

But if her appearance might have elicited shock or sympathy from someone else, Maddi wasn't bothered in the slightest. Because when she looked at Ayame, she didn't see the handsome tomboy and star of the track team. She could only see Samarra.

"Samarra," Maddi evenly replied, narrowing her eyes.

"You can call me that if it will make you feel better," she sniffed. "But I think we both know that I'm not her. I'm me. Ayame."

"You're being controlled by her," Maddi corrected. "And in my book, that's good enough."

Ayame sighed. "It's not control, Madison, you just don't get it! You would if you were Samarra's friend like me. I was so empty before I became part of her friendship, but now…" She sighed again, smiling wistfully. "It's a wonderful feeling, really."

"Empty?" Maddi asked, raising her eyebrow. "That's the first I've ever heard of it."

Ayame shrugged. "Ever since I was little, I was always trying to live up to everyone's expectations," she explained. "It's why I joined the track club in the first place, why I sought out a career as a Pokeathlete. Why I work myself to the bone… it was all so people wouldn't disappoint me."

She smiled warmly. It was a horrid display, seeing such a cheerful smile so at odds with the malevolent aura emanating off of her, the vestiges of Samarra's control. Maddi resisted the urge to throw up on the spot.

But she held down her breakfast and pressed her. "What about Blake Harker, then?"

Ayame blinked. But beyond that, she didn't show a single emotional response to the name of the boy she was supposedly in love with. "What about him?" She asked.

Maddi didn't know much about their relationship, but she knew that it was probably one of the most important things in the girl's life, given how different the stories of the "stern and cold handsome prince of the track club" she'd heard about were from the girl she knew. She wondered if it would be possible to hammer her on that point, and maybe even bring her back to sanity.

"Don't you love him?" She pressed.

"Of course I love him, what kind of ridiculous fucking question is that?" Ayame asked, rolling her eyes incredulously. "Do you think I would have gone out with someone who I wasn't in love with? I'm not Olivia."

Oof. Slights against the Empress. There was definitely something wrong. But Maddi didn't care about Ayame's personal life, she was more interested in seeing how much Blake meant to her.

"So you're saying that Blake couldn't make you feel accepted? Loved? Even though you care about him so much?" She asked.

That time, Ayame did react. Her face twisted with concern briefly, but Samarra kept it from leeching out any further.

"Of course he did," she said softly. "Blake always tried his best to make me feel like the most wonderful person in the world."

Maddi scowled. She could already hear the "but" in Ayame's voice. "But that wasn't enough for you, was it?"

Ayame shook her head. "I always thought it was," she admitted. "I thought that, as long as we loved each other, that would be enough. But the truth is… Blake and I… we're toxic together. That's what I've always feared. That we're so dependent on having the other around to fill in these gaps in our hearts, that if we were apart…"

So that was what Samarra had used to get her claws into the tomboy. Maddi didn't know the specifics of their relationship, but it seemed there was some definite tension there.

"But you still love him?"

Now Ayame was angry. "Of course I still love him!" She snapped. "…And that's why I need to get back to the Pokemon Academy as soon as possible."

"You want Blake to be Samarra's friend too, is that it?" Maddi didn't even need to ask that question the answer was so obvious. Of course she did. Ayame was as brainwashed by Samarra as anyone else, so her number one goal was spreading the influence of her "friend" to as many people as possible.

"Blake NEEDS this," Ayame explained, her voice filled with desperation. "You don't understand, Madison, he has so much love to give. And at the same time… he has so much pain in his heart. I hoped that I would be the one who could fill it… but it can't be me."

She looked down, almost as if she was disappointed by that fact. Curious… Maddi wasn't even sure that someone under Samarra's influence COULD feel that way.

Ayame looked back up, and to an even greater shock to Maddi, her eyes were wet with tears.

"Blake's destroying himself," she said quietly. "He loves his sister so much. But she won't be with him. She ran away, and she'll keep running away. And no matter how much comfort and companionship I can give him, I can't be a replacement for her. And he doesn't want me to be."

I should hope not, Maddi thought, feeling nauseous at the thought of Blake having the same feelings for his sister as he had for Ayame. That was sickening.

"That's why he needs to become friends with Samarra!" Ayame explained, her voice rising in excitement. "Samarra and Blake, they want the same exact thing! They both just want to be accepted and loved by their family. Blake's desperate for his sister, and while Samarra isn't Guinevere… she's still a sister to him. And she's so excited to meet her little brother. And if she can regain her friendship with Guinevere well, wouldn't that be perfect?! Blake wouldn't have to struggle anymore, we could all just be happy, a family reunited."

Oh, yeah. It sounded perfectly peaceful, like a Hallmark movie.

Or maybe a Stepford family.

What Ayame said next sent a chill through Maddi's veins.

"I thought you, of all people, would be able to understand," the tomboy quietly added. "Having lost your sister, wouldn't you do anything if you could be reunited with her again?"

Maddi clenched her fist. So Samarra even knew about that, did she? She felt her blood start to boil as she contemplated beating the crap out of Ayame for even mentioning her big sister. But she held herself back. That wasn't Ayame talking right now. It was Samarra, using Ayame's mind as a puppet to spew her poison.

Maddi wouldn't take the bait.

"I see what you mean," she admitted evenly. "Someone like you, who loves Blake so much, it makes sense you would see the goodness in what Samarra is planning… and want to see that family reunited, for his sake."

"So you get it!" Ayame said, her face brightening. "That's why you need to-"

"One problem though," she cut in, startling the other girl. Maddi narrowed her eyes. "I don't really care that much about Blake, if I'm being honest."

"Wh-What? Don't give me that!" Ayame scowled. "You're his friend! You like him, I've seen you two get along before! You were nurturing eggs together and everything!"

"I'm sure it looks that way to you," Maddi said, approaching the chair Ayame was trapped in. "But see… I'm not a very friendly person. And while I can sympathize with Blake's position out of my own love for my sister… I don't really care to do anything about it. He's a big boy. He can take care of himself. And I won't lose sleep either way."

Ayame looked shocked for a fraction of a second. Then an even smile returned to her face.

"I see. You're even colder than I'd heard," she calmly stated, confirming for Maddi that the other girl had just been trying to play her.

"Heard from whom?" Maddi smirked. "Victoria Carver? And here I thought Samarra was intelligent. That girl's got a twisted perception of every woman sniffing around her precious Commander… but I'll let you know, you played a bad hand. I care about Blake just fine. But he's not nearly a good enough friend where I'd just nod and say 'oh, yeah, you're right'. Blake wants to get over this mess with his family? He can do it himself."

Of course, Maddi wasn't REALLY that cold. While Ayame was wrong in thinking that she and Blake were friends, she cared about him enough at least to support him if he wound up needing her help in fighting against his sister and saving her.

But this and that were two separate things. The flaw in Ayame's reasoning was that Maddi was smart enough to understand that what Samarra was offering was no prize. Blake, Guinevere, Samarra, one big happy family?

Ridiculous. It was just brainwashing, she knew that better than anyone because she could SEE the corruption wafting off of Ayame like smoke from a bonfire.

"Well, if I can't appeal to the altruist in you, could I at least ask you to let me up and use the restroom?" Ayame asked. "I have to go."

Maddi raised her eyebrow.

"Do I look that gullible to you?"

"Come on, what am I going to do? Run away?" She groaned. "I need to go! I've been stewing in my own juices, and you won't even let me have a change of clothes!"

"How about a pokemon battle?" Maddi suggested, reaching for her pokeball. "Or better yet, I can call Wes in, if you'd like to battle him."

"…Now isn't the best time," Ayame said darkly. She and Samarra were both well-aware that Ayame didn't have the skills as a trainer to face Maddi, not knowing the trump card the other girl was now holding.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Maddi sniffed. "Now, if you'd LIKE to use the bathroom, I could arrange that if-"

"Whitmore."

Maddi grimaced, turning to see Gerard enter the room with a plate of eggs. He didn't seem any happier to be here than she felt.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"Breakfast for our guest," he said, giving Ayame a pitiable look. "Wes said she didn't eat her dinner. Better feed her now."

Ayame smirked. "I don't suppose you could untie me so I could feed myself?"

Gerard glared at her. "You're lucky I don't shove these eggs down your-"

Maddi excused herself at about that time. She knew better than to try and pump Ayame for information right now, and the less time she spent around the slimeball Gerard the better.

She headed down the hall and decided to use the bathroom herself, not realizing that the opportunity she'd just left for Ayame and Samarra would be something she'd come to regret very soon.

Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good! What opportunity did Maddi provide? Did she let something slip? She needs to be careful around someone like Samarra, the woman is a genius after all. Hopefully everything will be alright, but this is a huge problem. Things are getting tense, and there's a chance that Samarra might attack at any moment.