Maddi's trump card has really turned this fight in her favor! But Ayame's not done just yet. Her Wooloo is evolving! What's going to come out of this?! The fight is nearing a conclusion, and will come to an end in this chapter. But as for what that end will be, well… I'm certain it's going to surprise you! Hopefully Maddi can make it out of this alright, because if she loses… things aren't going to go very well for her, that's for sure.

KedharS: Oh yeah, things are about to reach a fever pitch, that's for sure. As for what the results will be, well… I don't think anyone asked for this.

RKS Legacy: Cynthia has short hair, isn't very curvy, and pervs on girls like crazy. She's not a "butch" tomboy like, say, Sango or Ayame are, but she's definitely got boyish charms. Elaina is arguably the only real "traditionally feminine" love interest Blake's had so far.

Tambry96bj: Lana's been letting that one cook for a while, and it's finally boiled over.

Hyphenman: Well, the fight will certainly go in an interesting direction, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1218

Maddi was stunned. Ayame's Wooloo was evolving! The fluffy pokemon was glowing brightly, beginning the process of becoming a brand new pokemon.

"No!" Ayame cried, clutching her head. She fell to her knees as blood trickled down from her nose, reaching out desperately towards her pokemon.

Then all of a sudden, Foof stopped glowing. The light faded and she stood there with a confused expression on her face.

"Did… did that Wooloo just stop evolving?" Lila asked.

"I've developed some potions that can hinder evolution, but this is the first time I've seen the process stop all on its own," Willa said curiously.

"Please… please don't change…" Ayame whispered, staring desperately at her pokemon.

Samarra was furious. Her eyes blazed as she forced her way into Ayame's skull. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She demanded. "How dare you use my harmonia to force your wishes onto your own pokemon?! If you want to win this fight, then we are MAKING your Wooloo evolve!"

"No!" Ayame violently shook her head. "I won't do it! I don't want Foof to evolve! She's perfect the way she is!"

"Aya…" Olivia watched her friend in shock as Ayame doubled over in pain again.

"What's going on? What's happening to her?!" Giselle cried, looking around helplessly. She didn't like seeing Ayame in this state.

"I… don't know how to describe it," Rui muttered, holding her hand over her mouth. What she saw made her want to throw up. It was like Samarra's aura was clinging to Ayame and trying to strangle her. Unlike the other times someone had been taken over by Samarra, where it was as if she was corrupting their will, this time it felt like Ayame was actually struggling against her.

"Wooloo… it is Aya's favorite pokemon," Hiromi said quietly. "Ever since she was a little girl and she saw one on a farm she wanted one. Even though the Johto Region was right at our door and filled with Mareep, she wanted a Wooloo. And when she got one, she adored her."

"That's my girl," Olivia whispered, her eyes shining with excitement. "Fight her."

"Wooloo?" Foof abandoned the battle and trotted over to her trainer, looking worriedly up at Ayame. Ayame forced a smile to her face and reached out to pat her on the head, when her arm froze in its place.

She cried out and clutched her head again, screaming. Thoughts were flooding into her brain, violent thoughts about hurting other people, about hurting Maddi, killing Maddi, thoughts that would never occur to her under normal circumstances.

Maddi didn't say anything. She stared in shock at the girl writhing in the grass. The malevolence coming off of Ayame made her want to throw up.

"I don't want… please… don't change her…" Ayame pleaded. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to focus her mind. If her Wooloo was going to evolve, she didn't want to see it. Dubwool were fine and all, but Wooloo…

…

Foof was perfect the way she was. So why was Samarra trying to change her? Why would her friend do something like that? It didn't make sense to her. Then she was suddenly back in her bedroom. Lying in bed and clutching her little stuffed Wooloo to her chest. The one Blake had gotten for her on their first date. The one that she'd given the most idiotic name in the world to, but had sounded unbelievably cute to her anyway.

She held it close to her face and took a deep breath. She could even smell it! She smiled. Yeah, this… this was where she wanted to be. Why was she fighting and struggling, anyway? If she had this with her, then…

…

More flashes in her mind. It was like she was watching a movie about herself. She saw her body hurt innocent people, hurt Rui, her friend Celia. She saw her approaching Maddi, and felt the impulse telling her to kill.

…Kill?

No. That was impossible. Ayame was a lot of things but she would NEVER kill someone! Just watching the way she hurt the others made her want to throw up! But… she had to, right? Samarra wanted her to, and she couldn't just…

She couldn't…

Why couldn't she?

Wincing, Ayame opened her eyes, looking up at a stunned Maddi. It was like a veil had been lifted from her, and she was seeing things clearly for the first time.

"Madison… Maddi… why… what's happening?" She murmured, feeling the same shaky sensation as when she woke up from a very draining dream. "Why… are we fighting?"

Maddi didn't have an answer to that. She just stared slack-jawed at the girl in front of her, unable to find the right words.

"Ah…" Samarra slumped back and fell into Wes's arms, blood rolling down from her nose.

"H-How?" She whispered. "It's not… how?!"

"What's going on?!" Olivia demanded, looking back at the others. Everyone was confused by what was happening, but the people she was looking to were the ones who would know more. The harmonia people, who all looked to be in various stages of sick and confused.

But no one was more shocked than Maddi. She stared back at the confused Ayame and couldn't believe what she was seeing.

There wasn't a trace of Samarra to be seen. Ayame was… Ayame again, and Samarra…

Samarra was gone.

"This isn't possible…" Samarra was whispering that over and over, clutching her skull. "It's not! It's NOT! You're my friend! Mine…"

But she could already feel her connection to Ayame slipping away. All those precious memories about Blake and their connection, she couldn't… she wouldn't… she…

"GYYYYAAAAAAAAH!" Samarra and Ayame screamed at the same time. If not for Wes's strong grip than Samarra would have collapsed along with her as the connection was violently severed in a way neither was prepared for. Samarra's memories flooded into Ayame as she saw everything she'd done, permanently searing those crimes into her brain. And as for Samarra…

"This is… no, please…" Samarra broke from Wes's grip and fell into the grass, scraping frantically at her head like she was trying to tear the memories out of her skull. She'd been fighting so desperately to maintain her connection to Ayame, and now she was paying the price for it. She wasn't connected to the tomboy anymore; that link had been severed for good. But the memories, the thoughts, the fundamental nature of Ayame Toujou…

That had stayed. And it was poisoning her.

"You… what have you DONE to me?!" Samarra roared, glaring furiously at Ayame. She rose to her feet and took a shaky step forward. "These… thoughts… these memories… it's like poison in my mind!" Her voice cracked like a child and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I can't… I can't STOP them, they're everywhere…"

She doubled over and threw up in the grass, her discharge equal parts vomit and blood. She began to convulse as Ayame looked helplessly up at her, unable to even move a muscle herself.

"I don't know what's going on, but we need to act, now!" Rui was the one who took charge, glaring at her husband from across the field. Whatever had happened between Samarra and Ayame, it had given them an opportunity, and they needed to make use of it.

But Maddi was the only one who had pokemon that could fight, and she was still overwhelmed by what she was seeing. The others' harmonia allowed them to see some of Samarra's influence, but it wasn't as potent as it was with Maddi. So she was the only one who could really understand what had happened, at least part of it.

To Maddi, it looked like two people were play tug-of-war over a stuffed animal, and the animal had ripped in half in the process. Ayame had used her moment of lucidity and tried to claw her way back into control of her body, and Samarra had fought to maintain control. In the process, the damage to both girls was severe. Ayame had broken free, and kept her memories intact, including those she shared with Samarra that should have been lost after her freedom, similarly with Willa.

But unlike with Willa whose retention was brought on as a side-effect of those drugs, Ayame had fought her way to those memories by force, without even trying.

And that came with consequences.

Samarra could share her thoughts with those under her sway, it was one of the things that made her so dangerous. But when that connection was forcibly severed, those memories, all that knowledge she accumulated, it all went away. It was a severe price to pay. And Samarra had been so desperate to retain the knowledge of Blake in Ayame's skull that she'd refused to pay it.

Maybe it was because of how desperately Samarra wanted to keep those memories, or maybe it was because Ayame broke free of Samarra's control herself, rather than having someone else defeat her in battle. Or maybe some third thing was the cause, something Maddi couldn't even begin to guess at, she couldn't be sure.

The only thing she was sure of was that Samarra had been injured from that, and now was their best opportunity.

The only question was… their best opportunity for what? Was she going to kill Samarra? Just hurt her? Knock her unconscious and then tie her up, like they did with Ayame?

In the end, she'd never get the chance to find out.

"Vee!" Maddi shouted to her pokemon. "You've gotta get her, now!"

"Flareon!" Vee nodded, turning towards Maddi. Then he froze. His body started to shake, and he reverted to an Eevee.

"Oh, shit…" Maddi predicted the stab of pain before it even came. It was like her entire body was being ripped apart.

"No!" She hissed. "Not now! Not when we were so close!"

"What's going on?!" Chloe wailed. "What's happening to her?!"

Both Maddi and Vee were shaking, not dissimilar to what had happened between Samarra and Ayame earlier. Maddi collapsed in the grass, trying to overcome the pain and get to her pokemon's side. She crawled forward but soon enough it simply became too much to bear.

We overdid it… she realized. Vee's transformations… he used them too many times…

Back when Maddi had been experimenting with Vee's power, she'd recognized that there was probably a limit on how much the Eevee could transform himself before he collapsed. And it was clear they'd passed that limit. Vee had burned away all his energy trying to keep up with Ayame and her pokemon, and had pushed right past "tired" into "in pain".

It felt like every cell in Maddi's body was trying to get as far away from every other cell as it could get. She was being ripped apart on a genetic level, and she knew that Vee was feeling the same thing, only worse. With all the strength she had left in her she crawled the last few feet towards her Eevee and hugged him to her chest, whispering pained apologies as she nursed him gently.

The battle was over. It wasn't a victory, because everyone involved had lost. Foof collapsed next to her trainer, strained from her evolution being cancelled, and even though Ayame was still conscious and wasn't convulsing anymore, she didn't even have the strength to stand.

But she was free. Maddi might not have been able to defeat her last two pokemon, but she'd done what she'd set out to do. Neither girl was possessed by Samarra, which made the result a victory no matter how you looked at it.

If only that could be the end of this struggle, it would be perfect.

"So in the end… it all falls to me…" Wes said, shaking his head. He stepped forward and lifted Samarra up into his arms. The woman was trembling, clinging to Wes like a scared child seeking comfort from her father.

In a way, that was a suitable comparison.

Samarra had made friends with a lot of people. But when the friendship ended, her memory of them ended as well. She'd never dealt with an influx of memories like this before. While she'd had access to their thoughts through their mutual connection, the memories had always belonged to the original person. But now that the connection was broken, it was like she was getting the knowledge without any of the context. A lifetime of experiences had flooded her, and even with her genius there was only so much she could do.

"Get me away from here," she whispered, clinging to Wes's shirt. Fighting against Madison and the others, eliminating the threat, making friends, she didn't care about that anymore. She wanted to go. She wanted to be free. There would be time for all that later, she could wait. But she couldn't face what was happening while her mind was in tatters like this.

It was a relief that Wes was such a loyal guy.

"We're going," Wes said, staring coldly at the others. At his own wife and child. He was all Samarra had left now, and she dug her claws in tightly and refused to let him go.

"Wes, please!" Rui croaked out, her voice cracking with desperation. She fell to her knees. "Don't leave us… I need you…"ere

"I'm sorry," Wes apologized. His voice was as tender and loving as it had ever been, during those intimate moments together when it was just the two of them. When he let the cool façade slip away and could just be human with her.

It was a gentle side to her husband that Rui treasured more than anything, a secret just for their family, and Wes exposed it to the world like it was nothing.

Rui's heart broke a little.

"Don't go!" Vic shouted. She was about to run after her father but Alden and Anabel held her back. "Dad! Don't go! Please! You can… you can fight this! If she can get free, then so can you, right?! Just… just fight!"

But Wes felt no need to fight. He didn't see anything wrong. Even though he knew he shouldn't leave his family, he couldn't bring himself to put up a fight over it. It was what Samarra wanted, after all, and what Samarra wanted she should get.

They all wanted to stop him, but nobody could. Everyone there had either run out of pokemon or run out of energy, and no one thought they could stop Wes from leaving if that's what he wanted to do. Rui and Vic's cries filled the air, and there wasn't a damn thing to do about it.

"Well, this is quite a shock."

A voice broke out from down the road and Samarra flinched, clutching Wes tighter. In spite of her desperate situation, she couldn't help but smile.

"Big brother…" She whispered. If her mind hadn't been so frazzled with harmonia she might have felt him coming, but then he was always unique, wasn't he? She turned in his direction and gave him a beatific smile.

Kanone wasn't smiling. His eyes were filled with rage.

Then he was smiling. Like it was all one big joke.

"Now this is really something," he mused, approaching the Pokemon Center at a leisurely pace, as if this wasn't an emergency. "My little sister, sneaking out of her room after curfew to go make time with a boy? Now, I'm pretty sure you know better than that, don't you?" He asked with the tone of a responsible elder sibling scolding their irresponsible little sibling.

"You shouldn't have trapped me in there," Samarra said. "I needed to be free, to make friends. It wasn't fair."

Kanone stopped walking. He raised his eyebrow and looked around, lifting his arms in a gesture that seemed to ask "do I really need to explain why you were locked up in that place?"

"…You know, little sister, it's one thing to want friends," Kanone calmly replied, "but come on, stealing another woman's husband? I know I didn't teach you to be a homewrecker."

"He's mine now!" Samarra spat defensively, clinging to Wes. "My new favorite! You can't make me give him up, I won't! I need him!"

She was crying now. It was a horrific sight to see for the audience of trainers. This woman, who'd spent so much time tormenting them, controlling and twisting their minds to suit her own sick games, was acting like a scolded child. It was eye-opening to see just how immature she really was for someone so dangerously smart.

"We've discussed this many times," Kanone said, walking forward. Wes stiffened, expecting a fight. But Kanone wasn't even paying attention to him, his eyes were focused solely on his little sister. "It's too dangerous for you to come out."

"I won't go back to that place," Samarra hissed, glaring daggers at her older brother. "You can't make me. I refuse, do you hear me, big brother!? A prison without human contact… where I spend my days waiting to die… no. I won't stand for it. I'm going to make friends like a normal person and live a happy life! You can't take that from me!"

"You're not a normal person," Kanone coldly rebuked her. "You're dangerous. Those powers of yours… you don't know how to control them. And even worse, you don't want to."

"…Why should I?" Samarra sulked. "Everyone would be so much happier if they were my friends! We could all get along and live peacefully together. It's the only solution big brother, you know it is. Why are you trying to stop me?"

"Because you're dangerous," Kanone repeated. His hand drifted to his belt. "You're my sister, Sammy. That means you're my responsibility."

"You don't understand," Samarra muttered, shaking her head. "You won't ever understand. This is the right thing. Helping people. Making friends. Like mom always says, 'take care of the people you love', well, that's what I'm doing!"

Kanone shook his head. "I'm not going to argue with you," he replied. "You're too broken to even understand what you're doing is wrong. There's only one way to fix this."

"NO!" Samarra screamed. "I'm not going back there! You can't make me!"

She let go of Wes and he dropped her into the grass, a remarkably callous move for a so-called friend. But Samarra didn't seem to care about that. She picked herself up and kneeled in the grass while Wes stepped in front of her, reaching to his belt for his pokeballs.

Kanone sighed. "…I really, really didn't want to have to do this," he said. "But you've left me no choice. I'm going to stop you, Sammy. Even if it means I'll have to hurt you to do it."

Well, this chapter certainly took a turn. Maddi and Ayame's fight ended with an anticlimax, but things have gone completely off the rails! Samarra and Ayame have both left scars on each other, and now Samarra's trying to get away. But her big brother won't let her. This situation is getting really out of hand, and now it's down to Samarra's final friend, versus her older brother! How will this end? Will Samarra defeat him and get away, with Wes in tow? Or will Kanone beat Wes and free him from her control, forcing her back into that prison? The battle for the fate of Agate Village is reaching the climax!