Samarra and Ayame were separated, but it had some dire consequences. Hopefully Ayame at least will be okay. As for Samarra… given her mental state, I don't think we want even more degradation on her part, but we'll have to see. In the end, though, Kanone showed up to confront his sister, which was good, but as for saving the day… Samarra still has Wes. And Wes is still a very powerful trainer. Will Kanone be able to defeat him?

KedharS: Well he's been off doing stuff, he's been busy.

Venoms Cross 2: Kanone's pretty strong, but so is Wes. We'll have to see who's more capable of winning.

Gyvarius: Yep, this arc has been going on for a long time. Way longer than I anticipated. Heck, the battles themselves have been going on for like a hundred chapters at this point. It's a taste of what the longer arcs will be like, that's for sure.

Guest: Don't worry. I'll be focusing a lot on the aftereffects of the forcible separation of Samarra and Ayame.

RKS Legacy: It's a little more complicated than that. Don't worry, I'll touch on the specifics of why Ayame, and ONLY Ayame, was able to break free from Samarra's control.

Hyphenman: Of course there's a connection there. There was from the start.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1219

"I hear you're champion-class," Kanone said, narrowing his eyes. He could sense a strong opponent in the air, almost like it was natural for his harmonia.

"I've fought my share of battles," Wes said quietly. "Against opponents you couldn't even dream of. This won't be a problem."

"Is this alright?" Hiromi asked. She'd gone over to her daughter's side. Ayame was in rough shape, but she was conscious, just feeling miserable. Maddi was the same way, but Rui was looking after her instead. Both girls were being cared for, as everyone else watched the fight.

"I don't know," Alden said honestly. He had a rare serious expression on his face. "Kanone Harker is a talented trainer with a lot of skill. But Wes…"

Alden had fought Wes. And he'd lost. The man was the real thing. And now he was fighting under Samarra's influence. And while the Commander had never fought against Kanone Harker personally, he had always wanted to know how he would stack up.

It felt odd to Alden, hoping that a potential foe he'd always wanted to fight against would be stronger than he was. It wasn't the kind of desire that would come naturally to a pokemon trainer. But it was way better than the alternative. If Kanone was weaker than Alden, well…

This had the making of a very bad situation, he could say that much.

"It will be fine," Alcea said confidently. She was the only one here who had faced Kanone in battle before. "Kanone is strong. The power he has is awesome. I do not know if he's stronger than Victoria's father, but…"

They all had their doubts. That was for sure. But it was Donoma who said the obvious.

"…But what if he loses? We'd be in seriously bad trouble if Kanone gets taken over by Samarra as well, right?" Everyone had been trying to avoid thinking that way, but when Donoma said it, there was no denying that was a risk. Kanone was a strong trainer. If Samarra got her hooks into him…

"That's not something you need to concern yourself with."

Everyone reacted with surprise. Someone else had joined them when they weren't looking. It was a woman in a suit, with red hair and a stern expression. She had clear blue eyes like the sea.

"You're Rin," Alcea said quietly. She remembered Kanone's sometimes-acquaintance-cum-manager. The redhead adjusted her glasses.

"That's right, I am… a compatriot, of sorts," Rin replied. "I've been helping out the family with some time, and I'm here as support, in part, for my charge's… recklessness."

Kiana knew a beleaguered assistant when she looked at one. In spite of Rin's composure it was clear that the woman was worked to death. And yet she still looked professional.

"Excuse me, but what did you mean by that?" Vic snapped. "About Kanone not being at risk? Do you even know what's happening right now? What that woman is capable of?"

"Of course," Rin replied, sliding her glasses up her nose. "But I know what Kanone is capable of. Particularly in regards to his harmonia."

Rin glanced at Kanone, who was busy selecting his pokemon. He glanced up at her and waved like he didn't have a care in the world, an odd and confusing gesture given the situation and his complex emotional state.

Rin sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm one of very few people trusted with information on Samarra Harker and the other Harker siblings," Rin said, reaching into her breast pocket and taking out a day planner along with a small pen. She began writing something down, not even taking her eyes off of Kanone to do so.

"Samarra has the ability to impress her harmonia on anyone, human or pokemon. It allows her to form a bond with them instantly, causing them to become her friends. But Kanone Harker… due to the special qualities of his harmonia… he's immune to her ability. Completely."

A chorus of gasps rose up through the audience. Maddi glanced up curiously from where she was lying on Rui's lap.

"So he's… like me?" She whispered to herself not seeking confirmation from the other woman. But it was a curious fact to be sure.

"It's because they share blood," Rin said. "At least… that's what I've always suspected, anyway. Kanone is immune to her-"

"That's wrong."

Rin flinched, shocked that Kanone had rebuked her. He glanced back at her and the affability drained off of his face, leaving only a man filled with coldness in is place. He shook his head.

"I'm not immune to my sister's harmonia because we share blood, isn't that right, Sammy?" He asked, glancing past Wes and at his sister, the only person who actually mattered here. "After all… our little sister isn't immune to your abilities, is she?"

Samarra sighed, shaking her head. "You're still caught up on that? I don't understand. It was all in the name of science. I needed to understand this power of ours, you should respect that."

"You forced yourself on her!" Kanone exploded. "She was a CHILD! Practically a BABY! And you forced your way into her mind, implanted yourself inside of her like some sickening virus, until you destroyed everything good about that girl!"

"It was a learning process," Samarra calmly replied. "I made sure to be careful. I did no damage. Guinevere enjoyed herself. She always laughed when we played together, while you were always cold with us both."

Kanone shook his head. "Laughter? Are you kidding me? She was crying. Screaming. We had to pull you off of her."

Samarra blinked, and tilted her head to the side. "…Ah. Crying. That was the word. I always get those two mixed up. My mistake."

Kanone recoiled in disgust at his sister's frankness. "Do you have any idea what you did to her?" He seethed. "The damage you caused, with your carelessness?"

"She was broken, and I fixed her," Samarra said. "Like when I repaired the television, or the car. The brain is just another simple machine."

"She wasn't BROKEN! A human mind isn't something you can repair just with a few twists of a screwdriver!" Kanone exclaimed. "She's just… she's different!"

"I wanted to play," Samarra coldly rebuffed him. "She was ignoring me. It was impolite. You ignored it because you didn't care. You were too busy to make time for us. But mommy and daddy were talking. They were worried about how unresponsive she was, how she didn't like to be touched. Guinevere was defective. You could talk to her for hours and she wouldn't hear a word out of your mouth. That behavior is not acceptable for a child. Children need social stimulation, after all, and in her state she was incapable of that. So I tried to fix her."

She shrugged.

"It was for her own sake. I was trying to help her, trying to fix her brain so she would be a good little sister like she was supposed to be. And you locked me up because of it!"

Kanone let out a long, exhausted sigh that conveyed just how many years this had all been weighing on him.

"You're not well, Sammy," he said quietly. "You do all this, brainwash all these people, but I don't understand why. I've never understood you. And I know, it's because you're smarter than I am, believe me, I've had that shoved into my face enough already. But that doesn't give you the right to play god with other people and force your will onto them! It just doesn't! That's sick and wrong, and that's why we locked you up in that place to begin with! Because if we didn't… who KNOWS what you could have done, not just to our family but to the world!"

"…I was just trying to help…" Samarra sulked. She couldn't understand how he didn't get that. Guinevere was in pain. She was miserable. And she wouldn't listen to Samarra when she was talking to her. Not a good little sister at all. It was right to try and fix that, right? All the medical textbooks she'd read on a whim said that Guinevere's problems weren't the sort you could fix, but that was because the doctors couldn't do what she could.

She could use her harmonia to enter Guinevere's mind itself and repair her brain in whatever manner she wished. She could have turned Guinevere into the perfect sister and daughter and made everyone in her family happy.

And instead of being grateful, what did her family do? They locked her away because she was "dangerous".

Ridiculous.

Guinevere was far more dangerous. Her current actions had proven that, hadn't they? Now that she had complete access to Ayame's memories, she could see everything through the other girl's eyes. She could see exactly how Guinevere had turned out, all the things she'd done in Samarra's absence, brought on by her own issues. And because she had Ayame's mental processes, she could understand that those things were bad, at least from the perspective of an ordinary human being that lacked Samarra's enlightenment.

And because Samarra was Samarra, any assertion made by her brother that Guinevere's actions were a result of Samarra wreaking havoc on what was an otherwise normal (if neurologically inhibited) brain would fall on deaf ears.

He didn't even try.

"Sammy… mom's gone, you know," Kanone said. "She's been in a coma for years, because of our little sister. Whatever you did to Gwen… it broke her in ways that I can't even describe. It's like you fixed a cracked window by smashing it with a sledgehammer, don't you understand?! Everything that's happened, it's all YOUR fault!"

Samarra blinked.

"…My fault?" She mumbled. "This is MY fault? I was trying to help our sister, big brother. I was fixing her. You just got in the way before I could finish."

Kanone laughed. He couldn't believe she actually thought that. It was too absurd for words.

"Guinevere is terrified of you. Maybe THAT'S why she never wanted to play with you. Because she could see you just as clearly as the rest of us could. See you for what you really are."

"A monster," Samarra said. Kanone reacted with surprise, so she pressed on. "That's what you were going to say, right? I'm a monster? It's a common enough statement, believe me. Everyone likes to label the people who go against the expected societal norms, the disruptive elements, as monsters."

"…That wasn't what I was going to say," Kanone muttered, shaking his head. "You're the smartest person I've ever met, Sammy, and yes, when it comes to your ethics, to call them twisted would be putting it mildly."

Rui's eye twitched. She couldn't believe Kanone was phrasing it that way, as if Samarra didn't have her beloved husband wrapped up in her own webs right at this very second.

"It's not my fault!" Samarra screamed, stomping her foot. She rattled her hand against her head, nearly pulling out her hair. "You, you… people, you're all so… so-!"

She was desperate to find the right word. Instead, her head began to hurt.

"These asinine memories, polluting my genius…" Samarra mumbled, shaking slightly. "That girl's thoughts they're so… shallow. So vapid. Sports. Playing in the snow. Fornication. It's so tangible and visceral and human, it makes me sick! Don't you get it? Why won't you understand? These people, they're like… they're like…!"

She began hyperventilating. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"Do you remember our family picnics?" She said, her voice oddly calm. Kanone was taken aback.

"Sammy, I don't-"

"Mother would cook. We had staff who could handle such things but she insisted to waste her time on such pointless menial labor. Then we would all go out to a park, one far smaller than our garden, and eat food that had been prepared in our kitchen. It was pointless! A waste of time! So why did she do that? Why? It doesn't make sense! I can't understand the logic behind it!"

She shook her head and her body seized for a second, before she returned to normal, for whatever degree "normal" was applicable to such a batshit crazy lunatic.

"But still. The picnic. It was enlightening," Samarra said, shaking her head. "All that work on something so pointless, and yet she did it with a smile. And I'm the same way. I toil and work hard to prepare something menial, and then when I settle down with it, bug pokemon come and take it all away, just haul off the crumbs and my picnic is ruined, don't you get it?! And so I make more food, but the bugs just come and take it away AGAIN! They keep RUINING my picnic when it's MINE! I made it for ME! And I'd share it with them if they asked, but they just take it anyway because that's what they do! Why can't you understand?! It's MY picnic, mine, and it's all just RUINED because of stupid, human people!"

The field went silent. Nobody quite knew what to say.

Then Marion tugged on her mother's arm.

"So wait, are we the Bug type pokemon? I really didn't understand that."

Kanone sighed and shook his head. "Sammy… the way you see the world… it's frightening. But not just for us, right? You're scared too. I can see it. You wanted to connect with our sister but you couldn't, not really."

"I was trying to help her. It's my responsibility to fix things that are broken. Anyone with even a fraction of intelligence could tell you that broken things need to be repaired."

"But Gwen isn't some machine! You can't just reboot her or send her in for repairs because she's not operating properly!" Kanone groaned.

"You can't. You aren't smart enough. You've never been as smart as me," Samarra said, shaking her head.

"No one is that smart," Kanone said. "And that's part of the problem, isn't it?"

Samarra tilted her head to the side. "…No… it's just what is. That's all."

She raised her hand and Wes did the same.

"Wes understands me. We share a connection. Just like Ayame and I used to." She turned to the others, wearing what almost looked like a smile, if it wasn't so cracked and warped. "And you… so many of you… we all shared a connection. You were happy."

Her eyes started to water.

"I could have fixed you, too. All of you. Repaired those flaws. Those imperfections. All that humanity in you, tearing you down, filling you with misery and sickness. You could have been so much better. You could have been beautiful…"

She wiped her eyes and turned back to her brother.

"They don't understand. None of you can understand. You're all too broken. That's why I need to fix you. Like I fixed Wesley. He sees things the way I do now. He's my friend. We share a connection, and that's something you'll never get to experience."

Samarra sounded almost regretful when she said that. But Kanone didn't have any regrets.

"You and I already share a connection, Sammy," he replied. "We're family. That means I'm always going to be there for you. To look after you. No matter what."

"…As my jailor," she hissed. "As the person with the keys to my prison cell."

"…Yes, that may be the case," Kanone admitted. "Because you're too dangerous to be left to your own devices. I won't let you turn the rest of the world into a reflection of this nightmare you cast on everyone. You're my sister. That means you're my responsibility."

He threw the same words that Samarra had stated about Gwen back in her face. Samarra smiled in response.

"I won't go back there," she promised. "I won't go back to that cell. You can't imagine what it's like, to be a prisoner like that! To be trapped in a lifeless shell, without any connection, cursed to rot away and die in a vessel I didn't create!? This brain, my brain, was meant to do so much more… and you refuse because you're afraid?"

Kanone narrowed his eyes. "The 'vessel' you were complaining about, your prison cell… you aren't talking about that room, are you?"

Samarra blinked. "No, of course not. Very good big brother."

She ran her hand along her body.

"This… sack of meat I'm inside of, it constrains me! Limits me! I have to eat and defecate and sleep and all sorts of degrading, menial tasks! You trapped me in this shell, forbidding me to escape, and now you've poisoned me with that girl's tainted humanity! How do you expect me to live such a limited life? So… mortal? So human? Tell me, big brother! How am I supposed to deal with this?!"

Kanone didn't have the words to soothe his sister's worries. He wouldn't even know where to start. On principle she viewed the concept of physical existence as a shackle on her, in spite of her desperate yearning for a connection.

She was limited by the needs of her body. So she sought to connect to others, in the hope of expanding her world beyond the confines of her physical shell. It was almost poetic, if not for the whole "brainwashing people into being her meat puppets" part of it.

"Sammy… I can't fix you. I can't make you a normal person," Kanone admitted. "And unlike you, I'm able to admit it. You're not a monster and you're not broken. You're just… not the same as other people. And I love you in spite of that. But you need to stop this. You can't just go on forcing your will on others, no matter how smart you are. That's why we need to settle this. Before anyone else gets "fixed" by those powers of yours.

Darla sighed in relief. They'd spent all this time talking, and in the end it had gone nowhere. What was even the point? Illustrating that Samarra was Zubats crazy? Everyone knew that already, even if they didn't know the full scope of her insanity.

She would much rather have an actual battle than listen to these two siblings tear each other apart over their family drama and turn all of them into collateral damage.

So after a nice family chat between Kanone and Samarra, we're finally ready to get this show on the road! We'll begin with the battle starting next chapter, and hopefully it'll be worth it! Kanone and Wes are both very strong trainers, and we'll see which one of them will emerge victorious. As for Samarra… what else is even left to be said? She's certainly not well.