The fight has reached its climax. Kanone and his Samurott have given it everything they have, and unfortunately Wes's Tyranitar has been able to take it. But this match isn't over yet. Giraud may be a monster of a pokemon, but Sammy is quite strong herself. And there's no way Kanone will let her lose. This match has put everything he has on the line, and he has to win. We'll just have to see if he has the strength to do it. Remember to review!

KedharS: That's definitely nothing to sneeze at, he can probably do quite a bit with Water type moves against a Tyranitar.

Guest: Samarra isn't wrong when she thinks that her body is a prison for her mind. But in a sense, her genius is an even bigger prison, one that really keeps her from the connection she desires.

Hyphenman: It's been a long time coming. But there's another showdown coming up that's been built up even longer.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1228

"Come on, Sammy!" Kanone roared, his harmonia surging. For a moment, Samarra thought he was shouting at her. She quickly shook her head, regaining her focus.

"Samurott!" Sammy charged at Giraud, sword raised. She slashed her blade at the Tyranitar, coating it in shimmering blue water.

To her surprise, Giraud was able to dodge the attack.

"With rock polish, Giraud's can move deceptively fast," Was said, narrowing his eyes. "Especially with the aid of harmonia. Your Samurott is quick, Kanone, but her base speed is still only 70. I could tell from her last exchange, a few boosts to our speed will put us ahead! Now Giraud, use stone edge!"

"Tyranitar!" Giraud raised his arms and surged with power, tearing up massive boulders from the riverbank and flinging them at Sammy.

"An offensive strike like that, huh? Well, I hate to break it to you, but projectile moves won't be much use against Sammy," Kanone said, shaking his head. "Razor shell!"

"Samurott!" Sammy danced with her swords, slicing through the stones like a hot knife through butter. With her graceful footwork it could be easily forgotten that she was a pokemon who excelled in the water; she moved so swiftly on land! By the time she finished, the stones sagged to the ground around her, skillfully diced into tiny shards of rock.

With a flick of her blade, Sammy turned her focus back to the Tyranitar.

"We might not be able to raise our speed," Kanone admitted. "But that doesn't mean we'll just slow down, either. Sammy, use aqua jet!"

"Samurott!" Sammy lowered her head and got on all fours, charging at the Tyranitar with her horn extended. She picked up speed as water surged up around her, turning into a sharpened torpedo aimed right at the titanic pokemon's throat.

"Tyranitar!" Giraud braced himself against the blow, widening his stance and planting his feet. When Sammy collided with him he winced in pain, but still held his ground, refusing to fall in the face of the attack.

"That was a powerful move," Wes said, rubbing his shoulder where the Samurott's horn had struck. But it had failed to pierce Giraud's hide. "It just didn't have enough force behind it! Giraud, strike back with counter!"

"Tyranitar!" Giraud swung his tail at Sammy, hoping to deal some serious damage to the Samurott, but Sammy was surprisingly fast, even factoring in the boost from rock polish. It was like she'd seen beforehand what the Tyranitar was going to do, and had sacrificed some of the strength from her attack so she'd still have the energy to dodge. She leapt back, just barely avoiding the swipe of his tail, and opened her mouth wide.

"Time for a close-range hydro pump!" Kanone ordered.

"Samurott!" Sammy fired a massive blast of pressurized water that swallowed Giraud's entire head. That one wasn't blocked by the scales.

Wes felt like the skin on his face was being ripped off. But he was used to the pain by this point.

Samarra was less accustomed to it.

"Aaaargh!" She screamed, clutching her bleeding face as she felt the water pressure smack into her. What was wrong with her?! It's like she was broken! Kanone… whatever he was doing, this… this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to feel this kind of pain, it wasn't normal! It wasn't…

It wasn't fair!

"TYRANITAR!" Giraud roared, dripping wet and brimming with fury. His eyes were glowing with manic rage and he threw back his head, unleashing a blast of sand that filled the battlefield.

"Giraud!" Wes shouted. That last attack had caused Giraud's focus to snap. Normally, the Tyranitar was in complete control of his emotions. And that should still be the case. He wasn't the kind of person to let a little thing like a super-effective hit ruin all the hard work he'd put into keeping himself from becoming a rampaging monster.

But unfortunately for the both of them, Samarra didn't care about any of that.

"Concentration? Inner peace? Are you kidding me?!" She spat, clutching her skull. "How far has that gotten you in this fight? The only thing that will defeat my brother… is overwhelming power and skill, not something worthless like control!"

"Tyranitar!" Giraud roared again, surging with power. The ground began to shake as the sandstorm swirled towards Sammy.

Kanone sighed. "I expected that reaction," he admitted. "Sammy's always had a bit of a temper when things don't go her way. But usually she handles things in a more… considerate manner."

It was odd to see her snap like this. It didn't feel like his little sister. But he didn't have the luxury to think about all the intricacies of his genius sister's mental state right now, he had to focus on the incoming sandstorm.

Luckily, he was more than prepared for such an occurrence.

"Sammy," he called to his Samurott. "That sandstorm looks pretty brutal. I think we should take care of it, don't you?"

"Samurott," Sammy nodded, raising her swords. She closed her eyes and focused her energy as the swirling tornado of hand spun closer.

Then she swung her blade.

It was hard to tell what had happened at first. When Sammy slashed with her sword it was like the sandstorm wobbled for a moment, almost as if it was a solid mass and she'd cut it down. But it didn't fall or anything like that, it kept spinning forward. And as it did, Sammy continued to slash, and the sandstorm itself looked more and more erratic.

"What… what's going on?" Giselle asked, confused. "What's he doing?"

Olivia gasped. She was the first person to realize what was happening, because it was something that she had done herself.

"It's swords dance," she answered. "His Samurott is using her swords dance to slash the grains of sand out from the sandstorm!"

It was an elegant movement that she spent months perfecting with her Garchomp. And it made for quite a graceful sight, as the cheers of adoration confirmed.

And only now was she remembering what had inspired it, the elegant swords dance of her mentor, Cynthia.

The bond between parent and child is a terrifying thing… who would have imagined that I'd see those movements a second time? Olivia shivered with delight as she witnessed a sight she thought would never appear before her again.

"Samurott!" When Sammy was finished, the "sandstorm" was just a gust of wind. She'd completely stripped the buffeting sand clear with her swords, and flung it into the grass beside her. She smirked triumphantly.

"Tyranitar!" Giraud indignantly roared, charging at the Samurott. He picked up speed thanks to the boost of his rock polish, to the point he was like a tank heading right for her.

Which was very easy for her to dodge, of course.

Sammy leapt to the side and swung her sword. Of course she could have used another special attack against the Tyranitar, but this was a matter of pride. She wanted to see if, after the swords dance, she'd be able to cut through the Tyranitar's tough exterior.

Her blade arced down and struck him in the back. This time she drew blood.

"Tyranitar!" Giraud stopped in place, a surprising amount of control for a pokemon of his bulk moving at the speed he was. Apparently, the merits of control weren't completely lost on Samarra after all. He turned and swung his tail at Sammy, and this time he managed to connect.

"Urrgh!" Kanone clutched his stomach as Sammy was flung across the battlefield. But she managed to land on her feet regardless, glaring furiously at the Tyranitar across from her. Giraud, in the meantime, was bleeding from the wound on his back, an injury Samarra and Wes felt all too well.

Samarra grit her teeth and regained her composure. She was better than this. She wasn't some wild animal. What was the MATTER with her?!

The answer to that question was obvious, of course.

That girl. Ayame Toujou. Prolonged contact with her thoughts and memories was having an adverse effect on Samarra's psyche. It was like that girl was a poison, infecting every part of her, and she couldn't let that stand.

If I became like her… how could I live with myself after that? No, that can't happen. I need to remember what makes me better than everyone else here. Why I'M the only person who can help them become connected.

Samarra couldn't forget one fact. No matter how many times they'd played Go, Kanone had never been able to defeat her. No matter how much of a handicap she gave him, he just wasn't smart enough. And nothing had changed since then. She was smarter than he was. And that would be the weapon she'd use to defeat him.

"Tyranitar," Giraud growled, narrowing his eyes. Sammy glared right back, rage welling up inside of her as she clutched her swords tightly.

Kanone felt the same stirring of anger inside his own heart, and knew what Samarra had done.

"So you used taunt again, did you?" He growled, glaring past Wes and at Samarra, who stood behind him with a triumphant smirk on her face.

"I won't have you increasing your strength with swords dance again. That last hit was far too close, it would be foolish to give you another opportunity," Samarra scoffed. "Isn't that right, my dear Wesley?" She asked, turning to him.

Rui seethed, feeling a stabbing pain in her chest at another woman referring to her beloved husband as "dear".

Wes narrowed his eyes. "Giraud!"

"Tyranitar!" Giraud's scales began to shine, and it was clear that he was using iron defense once again, boosting his stat to the max in order to fend off more sword strikes from Sammy.

"Samurott!" Sammy roared, crossing her swords together. She built up a current of water between them and broke the cross with a slash, sending a pulsing water burst in the shape of a blade at the hardening Tyranitar.

"Water pulse?" Wes smirked, bracing against the impact easily. "I think we've moved past that, don't you? My harmonia is working harder than ever to strengthen my pokemon, a move like that is nothing to us!"

"It's not YOUR harmonia," Kanone reminded him with a scowl. He glanced at his sister. "Don't think I've forgotten who's really pulling your strings."

"Like that matters," Wes scoffed. "Giraud! Use dark pulse!"

"Tyranitar!" Giraud stomped on the ground and released a shockwave of dark energy that surged towards Sammy and knocked her off of her feet. Sammy skidded over the grass, the force of the shockwave being enough to send her all the way into the river, where she landed. She remained under the water for a few moments.

Then, a massive blast of water erupted from the river's depths, aimed right at Giraud. Another powerful hydro pump. But Giraud was on guard for an attack like that. He swiftly dodged the blast, taking advantage of the boost in speed from rock polish, and began to stomp on the ground.

"Earthquake!" Wes roared.

The field began to shake and the waters churned. Sammy was assaulted by the tremors as she tried to stand up, nearly being swallowed by the waves. But it wasn't enough to make a pokemon like her lose her balance. She jumped up and out of the river, swinging her sword as she did and sending a blade of water at the Tyranitar, which Giraud shrugged off once again.

"It's not good," Vic mumbled, shaking her head. "Dad's Tyranitar is just too powerful."

"That pokemon really is a monster," Alden agreed. "As someone who's fought against it myself, believe me, I know. Look at all the damage it's endured until now! First from the Blaziken and Kommo-o, and now even Kanone's ace Samurott has been assaulting it over and over, but it still just isn't enough to make him fall!"

"…You're not really helping," Ian remarked.

"Lay off him!" Vic snapped, glaring at Ian. "The Commander isn't wrong! Dad… his Tyranitar… it's just so…"

She had always been proud of the fact that her father had a strong bond with such a fearsome pokemon. As destructive as Tyranitar were when they went on a rampage, she had never been afraid of Giraud before.

Now that had changed. It wasn't like he was some raging monster now, no, he was still the same Tyranitar she'd grown up loving.

But she was terrified that he'd win. That he was so strong, that no pokemon would be able to defeat him. That was the fear welling up inside her when she looked at the exchange between Sammy and Giraud.

Sammy had landed more hits. And the blows she'd struck were super-effective.

So why was she the one who looked exhausted? Why did it seem like this fight was taking everything out of her?

"Sam… Samurott…" Sammy panted, still feeling the effects of the earthquake. And she could feel that one of those tail strikes had shattered a few ribs.

But she wouldn't allow herself to fall. She needed to keep fighting, for her trainer as well as for her own pride.

Kanone had a bond with all of his pokemon. He wouldn't even catch a new one unless he felt a connection between the two of them first. In a way, he wasn't so different from his sister in that regard. Both Harker siblings desperately yearned to make a connection with other people.

I haven't fought a trainer as strong as this in a very long time, Kanone thought, staring at Wes with admiration in his heart. He wished they'd had the chance to battle under different circumstances. What fun it would have been…

Samarra sought out other people to become her friends. For reasons that may have sounded crazy due to her twisted mentality, but Kanone knew his sister. At her core, she was…

Well, no. She wasn't a good person. She was above morality in a sense. Concepts like "good" and "evil" just… didn't seem to apply when she made her choices. Talking with her felt like making contact with a fourth-dimensional entity; her existence couldn't be quantified by reality as human beings understood it.

That was a fancy way of saying she was crazy. But crazy in an indecipherable sense. At her core, she wanted friends. Maybe, he'd often considered, what she wanted the most was someone who was an equal to her. Someone who could see things the way she did, and understand her world. Someone she could make a genuine connection with.

"Why? Why can't you understand? You're all so… so ignorant! Don't you see? THIS is how it has to be! If you'd just listen, it makes sense! Why don't you get it?"

Samarra had been four years old when she first learned to talk. Or maybe it had taken her four years to realize that the voices around her were other people speaking and not just things in her head. But when Kanone first heard her say that the way he was organizing the picture books on her bookshelf were completely out of order his jaw had hit the floor. It was like a floodgate had been opened, and Samarra had gone from completely mute (she had never even cried as a baby) to speaking in sentences more eloquent than any toddler should have been able to comprehend.

Maybe that was when she had started slipping away from him.

Just like I want someone who can match my skill as a trainer… you're also searching for someone, aren't you? He thought, staring at the desperate, manic look in Samarra's eyes. Someone who you can make a connection with.

Maybe Kanone was just projecting his own turmoil onto his sister. Maybe he was trying to think that they were more alike than they really were, just because he wanted that to be the case. As if he was trying to preserve his OWN connection to her.

It was just as likely, he recognized, that Samarra took control over the minds of others simply because she enjoyed twisting them to her whims. Or maybe to someone thinking on a level as complex as Samarra those reasons were one in the same.

But one thing was clear, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't understand his sister at all. Either of his sisters.

Blake… you were always able to connect with Gwen in a way that I never could. Maybe… if it was you… maybe you would have been able to keep Samarra from going this far.

He smiled a little at the thought.

There's no sense wondering about it now. This is all going to end here.

"Sammy!" He shouted. This time, he was talking to his sister. "This is where we finish things!"

Samarra flinched at the harshness in his voice. She scowled.

"No matter what move you might have, hydro pump or whatever, I promise it will not hit," she spat. Was her voice coming from her own lips, or from Wes's? At this point, it hardly mattered. "Your Samurott is too far away! We'll finish it with this next attack!"

"We won't use a move like that," Kanone assured her, surprising everyone. Special moves had proven the most effective method of landing hits on Giraud, now that Sammy was taunted and couldn't boost her strength anymore with swords dance.

He smiled, his eyes flashing with harmonia. "Sammy's sword… will cut that beast down." It was a matter of pride at this point. He and his Samurott were in perfect agreement. If they were going to settle this fight, it would be THEIR way, with THEIR blade. It was the only way they'd feel satisfaction in fighting such a grim battle as this.

"Impossible," Wes glowered, shaking his head. "Giraud's defense is as strong as possible! With three iron defenses, there's no way you'll be able to hit!"

Kanone just smiled. "Lots of people like to throw that word around, you know? 'Impossible'. Or say 'there's no way'. But those words are just limits we place on our own ability."

Alden nodded in agreement, and so did several other trainers in the Battle Course, and even Olivia agreed. She was living testament to the value of hard work and determination, it was how she'd gotten this far.

Most everyone here felt the same way, even if not to such an extreme as Kanone.

"Let me tell you something," Kanone said, narrowing his eyes. "You're a strong trainer, Wes. I can tell. And that's how I know that what you're saying right now… not even you believe it. Because you know, don't you? Just like me. You know that those who are truly strong are those who never give up! In the world, there are always walls that we run into! And you must go beyond, move past, and rise above them! Continuing to press forward, until you reach the summit of the strongest, and then go beyond even that! That is what it means to be a pokemon master, don't you agree?!"

Alcea smiled. She recognized those words. The creed Kanone lived by.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Samarra screamed. "The only thing stronger than anyone is me! I'm not going to let you continue spewing that filth!"

She seized control of Wes, focusing all her power into his pokemon.

"TYRANITAR!" Giraud roared, seized by Samarra's fury. He unleashed all the power he'd built up, gathering it together inside of him. Wes's guidance and control was worthless at this point, he was a Tyranitar again, a beast of unparalleled destruction.

And the tool of that destruction was a massive hyper beam, a blast of incredible power that was larger than Sammy's entire body.

But Sammy didn't back down, or try to dodge out of the way. She drew her sword and charged at the attack, and her blade began to glow.

"Samurott!" Sammy howled over the roar of the hyper beam, swinging her sword at the center of the attack. She split it in half, nearly being swallowed by the attack's incredible power. It was nothing to scoff at. If she weren't receiving the boon of Kanone's harmonia, then the blast would have engulfed her. But right now, her sword carried the burning emotion of her partner, and she wasn't about to let him down.

She pressed forward, plowing through the attack until she came out the other side, her sword white-hot with energy.

"Your Tyranitar has incredible defense," Kanone admitted. "But this is a move that will slice through those defenses completely! Sacred sword!"

"Sacred sword?!" Ian gasped.

"I've never even heard of that move!" Chloe said, her jaw dropping behind her mask.

"It's a very rare attack," Keahi muttered. The only reason he knew of it was because his Doublade knew it. "Only a handful of pokemon are capable of learning it. But the move… it's a Fighting type move. It bypasses all changes to the target's defense and evasion to land a devastating blow."

Tears welled up in Rui's eyes as she witnessed the blade connect. Even Vic was crying with joy.

Finally… finally, this would be enough to vanquish the monster that had taken control of Wes and his pokemon.

"TYRANITAR!" Giraud's pained screams shook the village as he collapsed, his chest sliced open by Sammy's blade. Just as Keahi had said, the sacred sword ignored the hardness of Giraud's iron scales, and struck him cleanly. With a four-times weakness to Fighting type moves, there was no way to resist. Giraud fainted before he even hit the ground, and Wes went down with him.

"AAAAAAAAAaargh!" Samarra screamed as she felt her chest rip apart. She fell on her back and scraped frantically at the wound that wasn't there.

It was over.

Phew! THAT was a close one! Kanone and Sammy were pushed to the brink by Giraud's incredible power, but thanks to the power of sacred sword, they were able to finish off the Tyranitar! And now that Wes has been freed from Samarra's control, she's all alone now, and with no pokemon of her own to defend her… it looks like this is the end!