Valerie has played her trump card, and it's a trump card the likes of which no one has ever seen before. A Salamence… that is not a Salamence? Could this be for real? Or is it all one big April Fools' Day prank? After all, for such a pokemon to exist would seem rather paradoxical, wouldn't you agree? And how would Val even get a hold of one? Well, if it is real, and she DID have one… then it makes perfect sense she would use it to defeat Gwen. After all… that girl is ruled by her emotions, and there's little that's more powerful than fear. Remember to review!

KedharS: That would be quite a paradox!

Gyvarius: The Treasures of Ruin… for a girl like Val who delights in ruining everything she touches, I think she would be suitably interested in something like that…

Guest: All will be revealed eventually.

Jjjdunk1: It's quite a beast. And the perfect pokemon for exactly this situation.

Bad Writer: Good luck on your binge. It's okay to pace yourself, but don't feel like you're constrained, either.

Hyphenman: She's certainly had this one in the works. She's planning to make FULL use of her Roaring Moon to completely destroy as much of Gwen as she can. Because it's fun.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1236

"SHHHHHHHHAAAAAARAAA!" The strange Salamence roared, its body filled with primal fury. It unleashed a dominating aura through the sky, overwhelming everything that saw it.

It all came flooding back. The day in the park. The Salamence that attacked her. The agony of her harmonia awakening.

Gwen had repressed the painful things deep down inside of her head. That's why she had forgotten all about the fact she'd had a sister. Her brain had sealed those memories away because it knew she might break if she had to confront them. But they'd been forced into her mind by Ryoko. But these memories? The ones about the Salamence that had torn her life apart and nearly destroyed her? Those had never left.

They remained the things nightmares were made of, images of carnal terror that made her awake in sheets soaked with sweat and other, more humiliating fluids.

And for the first time since that day, a more horrifying nightmare than any her mind could conjure up howled in fury before her.

"UAUAAAAAAAGHH! NO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO!" Gwen screamed and collapsed to the ground, tearing her fingers through the grass as she desperately tried to get away. Her legs weren't working, her BRAIN wasn't working, she was completely seized by the sight before her eyes.

She was that little girl again. The one who didn't know anything.

"Gwen!" Kanone shouted.

"What's going on?! Her Gallade, it just-!" Rui's jaw dropped.

Gwen's harmonia was overwhelmed by the terror that seized her. And because of that, Lancelot was overwhelmed as well. He fell to the ground and buried his face in his hands, thrashing in fear as his trainer's emotions flooded into his body. Lancelot had been there that day, and he still bore the scars both physical and emotional from that attack. Right now, he was no longer Gwen's noble protector, bound to keep her safe. As Gwen time traveled back to that fateful day, she dragged Lancelot with her, turning trainer and pokemon back into helpless children in the face of that monstrosity.

But it didn't stop there. There was one other soul incestuously tangled in Gwen's psyche at the moment, and she never would have imagined what was happening to her right now.

"EEEEYAAAGH!" Samarra screamed as Gwen's fear flooded into her. This was impossible! It shouldn't have been possible! She was the one in control! She was the one whose mind was supposed to dominate those lesser than her! So why?! Why was she feeling this overwhelming FEAR!? Why couldn't she control her body?! Her mind?! What was Gwen doing to her!?

Samarra collapsed alongside her sister and curled up into a ball, digging her fingers into her skull. She was facing a backlash that she'd never felt before from her powers. For days she had influenced and compelled those she had made connections with, using their minds and bodies to her own advantage. She could suppress the dissident elements and make them totally devoted to her, turn them into her friends. But when their emotions crashed against her, she would beat them back like an iron gate, keeping the weight of harmonia bearing down on them, instead.

The tidal wave of Gwen's terror made her iron gate feel like it was made out of cardboard. She couldn't withstand it! Gwen's emotions overpowered her defenses and flooded her mind, filling her with so much fear and anguish that she couldn't think straight! Samarra screamed and screamed and screamed, her genius intellect unable to even solve the most simple of equations in the face of such crippling terror.

Val looked out upon her great work, and delighted herself in all she'd accomplished.

"In the end, that's what you always have been," she purred, stalking towards Gwen. "Just a scared little girl, unable to fight back against the monsters hiding under the bed. Well, you better be ready, Gwenny, because the monsters are here… and they're coming for you.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Gwen screamed again, and knocked Val back with a wave of harmonia. It wasn't even aimed her way; conscious thoughts were no longer controlling the Psychic type trainer. She was being driven by primal terror now, swatting away at anything that came close like a child trying to swipe blindly at the monsters in the shadows.

Val licked her lips in delight.

"Well, would you look at that? It seems that not every sister is incompetent, then."

"Haa… haa…" Samarra stumbled back, her face white with terror as she crawled through the grass. Her heart was pounding loudly and her lungs were working overtime to feed the oxygen back to her brain as she slowly returned to her normal level of insanity.

"I-I can't believe… I had… to sever my connection…" She muttered, her eyes wide with real fear for the first time in her life. She could still feel that sensation even now, prickling at her skin, hissing in her ears. She shivered. If she had stayed linked to her sister any longer then Gwen's madness would have swallowed her whole, and then…

She didn't even want to think about that.

"You didn't sever it, I severed it," Val corrected, clicking her tongue. "That power of yours… that thing freaks like you do… linking with your pokemon… for you, linking with other people… it has one very obvious weakness," she sniggered.

"…Break the trainer, and the pokemon follows with them," she explained, as though "breaking" another human being was an acceptable strategy for winning a pokemon battle. "But in your case, just breaking little Gwenny was enough to make you snap as well. And now you're all alone…"

"N-No… NO! I-I…" Samarra's mind was racing, trying to use her brilliant intellect to find a way out of this, but in her current state, exhausted, overwhelmed, and completely paralyzed with fear, she was as foolish as a child. Not even herself as a child, when she could have solved equations that would have given doctored professors pause; an actual child, confused and frightened and stupid, and pissing her pants.

That last part was literal. Samarra was too stunned to even recognize the humiliation of the mess she'd just made of herself. She started to cry.

"Sammy…" Kanone had never seen his sister like this before. Even with Val standing over her, in striking range for Samarra's ability if she so chose, it was like he knew she couldn't do it. She was too caught up in the horror she'd just endured, that the thought of attacking Val couldn't even register in her mind at this point.

She was a child in every way it truly mattered, and that delighted her tormentor.

"I don't need Nightmare to even attack," Val smirked, walking over to the cowering Gallade. "His foe is so petrified, what would even be the point?"

The Gallade that had destroyed Kanone's strongest pokemon was helpless before his very eyes. Val stood over him with a wicked gleam in her eye, and delivered a kick into the pokemon's side. No doubt it was weaker than any move he'd endured in his career as a pokemon, but in that moment it didn't really matter. He still howled in pain, his agony far more mental than physical.

Val just laughed.

"And with this, I'd say it's my win, don't you?" She asked, turning to the others with a flourish, her arms extended. "Gwenny in ruins, her sister vanquished, and her poor, pathetic little protector crippled on the ground before me…"

She took a deep breath and exhaled, doubling over. Her face was flushed. She clutched at herself with both hands, squeezing her thighs tightly around her wrists as she was overwhelmed by the ecstasy she was feeling.

"Perfect… so perfect… that despair… that AGONY! From the day I met you I knew… that you would give me something this delightful…!"

"You-!" Kanone couldn't help himself anymore. It was one thing to hurt Gwen through her harmonia. That was a battle. It had pained him to see, but it was necessary.

Or at least he thought it was. Now he knew better. He could see with his own eyes just what Val had been after, and he knew now that this "fight" had only been about one thing.

Making his sister- both his sisters- hurt.

And it might have been necessary to defeat Samarra. He couldn't deny that. But he there was nothing about this he liked. With a roar he ran at Val, only to be stopped by a giant dragon in his way.

"Salamence!" The beast roared with a name that clearly didn't belong to it. For all the resemblance the pokemon bore to a Salamence, Darla knew better than any of the others that it couldn't be. This pokemon's savage ferocity was nothing like the noble dragons she'd spent her life worshipping. Her own Salamence was a fearsome beast, yes, and in his primal fury could easily be as terrifying as the one before her eyes now.

But that wasn't how she knew that this pokemon was wrong. She knew because… she just knew. Because her years of affinity with Dragon type pokemon had taught her everything about what they were- and everything about what they weren't.

Whatever this was, it couldn't be called a pokemon. Not one that existed today. A relic of a bygone era, long before humans populated the world, where complex thought and understanding had no place, and all that mattered was pure, unadulterated destruction. Darla could see in this beast's eyes the kind of world it had grown up in, and she wanted no part in it.

"…Amazing…"

But there was one girl who thought otherwise.

Ange stared in awe at the beast in front of her. There was purity in the vision before her eyes, a creature unpolluted by the wickedness of human progress. Oh, it was still kept in a pokeball, it still followed the orders of its evil master, but… at its core…

Whatever this pokemon was, it was something even more primal than Hisui.

Ange began to shake. Perhaps… maybe… a land that could home such a beast was the paradise she sought in this modern world.

Where everyone else backed away from the ferocious dragon as it hovered closer to them, Ange was the lone soul among their number who stepped forward to greet it. But before she could make herself known, a scream broke out.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Donoma gasped. "Lukas! What the hell?!"

It was Lukas and the others of the non-combat group. They had brought more of the villagers to what, until now, had passed for safety-

But it turned out they had brought them into the jaws of hell.

Erik's jaw dropped as he stared at the monster before his eyes, reminiscent of a Salamence and yet completely different in an uncountable number of ways. His eyes dropped and he met Darla's gaze for a brief instant.

In that moment, two people who loathed each other reached a tense acknowledgment. They nodded to one another in mutual understanding, both sickened by the creature that hovered in front of them.

Val smirked and curled a lock of her hair.

"Well, this has been fun," she mused. "And it looks like some new guests have come to play! But unfortunately, I'm here to do a job, and I've had more than enough fun for one day."

The wetness that stained her fingers made it abundantly clear just how much "fun" she had been having.

A wicked light took hold in Val's eyes, as if it had ever truly left. She slowly ran her tongue across her lips.

"I suppose now… it's only fitting to continue, don't you think, Nightmare?"

"Salamence," the beast nodded.

"You… what are you talking about?" Kanone asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh? I thought it would be obvious," Val blinked. "Now that I've beaten your little sister and saved this pathetic little town… don't you think that makes it mine? After all, if it wasn't for me, you lot would have fallen under her sway, isn't that correct?"

That may have been the case, but that didn't make her logic sound.

"You… you can't DO that!" Rui exclaimed. "This is our village, what do you even want from it?!"

Val blinked, looking genuinely confused at her question.

"I want to destroy it, of course, down to the last blade of grass. Wouldn't that be what anyone would want to do?"

She said it so matter-of-factly that it didn't even sound real.

"You love this village so much," she cooed, nestling her cheek into her hand. "I can't help but imagine… what would happen to you all if you lost it? If it was just… erased? Would you cry? Would you scream? Or would losing your precious home, that you've protected so many years… would it cause you to drop dead on the spot from heartbreak?"

Her eyes flashed with excitement as she contemplated the possibilities. "I need to see it… that look in your eyes… all of you… when your hope snuffs out and despair takes over-! Then… then I can finally feel it…!"

It wasn't enough. It would never be enough. She needed more, more! The rush from breaking Gwen had already started to fade, and she needed to chase that feeling again! Then when it was done, and Agate Village was in ruins, she would take her time and collect the Oracle from the smoldering ruins.

"That's not happening!" Erik snarled. "We're here, and we'll stop you!" He may have been training to be a Pokemon Ranger rather than a battle specialist, but his pokemon could still fight if they needed to.

"We… We will?" Lukas asked. He was still petrified by the monstrous dragon hovering over the battlefield.

"Even if we did, I don't think it would make much difference," Allen said, frowning. His own pokemon wouldn't be able to do much against a behemoth like that one.

"Well, I suppose a little warm-up is fine," Val giggled with glee, cracking her neck. "Let's do this thing, Nightmare!"

"SALAMENCE!" Nightmare howled, turning to the soon-to-be rangers and coordinators who had sat out the previous round of battles.

No one had any doubt that they were all screwed. That Salamence-thing looked like it could tear through the team of every trainer there. But unfortunately for Val (and very much fortunately for everyone who was not Val) they wouldn't get a chance to find out.

Because at that moment Samarra decided to do the thing she'd been trying to do since her connection with Ayame was broken: run.

For the first time, something primal was driving her, giving her body a type of strength that she'd never relied on before. The feeling returned to her legs and she scrambled up, abandoning her sister and the others to their fate as she tore for the treeline.

"No! Sammy!" Kanone shouted. Even with the terror of Val before him, he couldn't allow his sister to escape. She was paralyzed with fear now, but when she calmed down… if she managed to get away, then…

It couldn't happen. But he was too far away to stop her.

"Oh, no, I didn't say you could go," Val snapped her fingers and her Nightmare turned its head, unleashing a stream of black fire from its maw.

The flames roared across the grass, creating a wall of fire that separated Samarra from her freedom.

"NOOOOOO!" The woman screamed as she fell to her knees before the barrier. The part of her yearning to escape more than anything told her to jump through it, ignore the flames and the pain, and just get as far away as possible. But Samarra's brain was working by that point, and everything that made her such a genius told her that those flames would surely kill her the second she tried.

But compared to life in that cell again… could it be that this was her only path to being truly free from her prison?

She slowly stood, shaking, and reached out to try and touch the flames. She could feel the heat burning against her fingers even from all the way over here. Maybe… just maybe…

"Hey now missy. Don't rush to your end so recklessly."

The air crackled with energy and suddenly an electric field expanded in front of her. It formed a dome of golden lightning and in the center of it was a pokemon, and a blonde boy in a yellow hoodie.

"It's… an Alolan Raichu!" Chloe gasped, recognizing one of her own pokemon.

Marion's eyes bugged out of her skull as she recognized something even more rare.

"K-Kyrese?!" She gasped, her jaw dropping.

The blonde raised his head, seeing Marion for the first time. He cracked a smile. "Hey there, little Mari! Look at you, all grown up!"

"Wha- buh-" Marion's mouth flopped open and closed, completely speechless at the sudden interruption. She wasn't the only one.

"You… what?" After the longest and most exhausting day of her life, Samarra was truly at a loss for words as she stared at the man in front of her, looking at her without a hint of fear in his electric blue eyes.

"I heard you calling for help," he said, reaching down and scooping her up into his arms in a princess carry. "Come on, gorgeous. Let's get you out of here."

Samarra was so stunned she didn't even think about turning him into her friend. She just stared in vacant shock, her arms hanging loosely at her sides instead of draped around his neck.

"We got what we came here for," Kyrese called to Val, narrowing her eyes. He glanced at Gwen's crumpled body on the ground. "And you've played around enough." The playful tone had left his voice, and he glared furiously at the brunette.

Val glared back at him, clearly thinking about whether or not to turn her Nightmare on him instead. But she thought better of it and recalled the monster to its cage, strolling over to Gwen and kicking her in the stomach. She grabbed Gwen by the hair and violently yanked her head up, staring into the girl's vacant eyes. She wanted to make it explicitly clear who she was talking to.

"We're leaving. Pack up your toys."

Gwen looked blearily up at Val, unable to process what she was saying. Without Samarra's influence on her mind, and having lost all memory of the events that preceded it from the severing of her connection, she was back to being a prisoner in her own head once more.

But then she saw Lancelot and screamed, desperately calling him back to the safety of his pokeball. That was enough for Val, who seized her by the throat and pushed her towards the blonde as she choked for air.

"W-Wait!" Kanone stood back up and ran towards them. "Gwen! Samarra!"

Neither sister heard his words, or even turned his way. But Val did. She gave him a wink and blew him a kiss, waving her fingers in a "toodaloo" gesture. The Raichu's eyes flashed and a field of electricity expanded around the four of them. Just as Kanone reached the edge it shrank away, and the four of them were gone.

Phew. What. A. Climax. Quite a chapter to celebrate April Fools' Day with, don't you think? Certainly this can't be how I plan to end the arc, could it? The Children of the Oracles have captured Samarra? And of all people it was Kyrese? That's just… bizarre. Who could have come up with such a crazy idea? Well, whether or not this is the TRUE ending to the Orre Region arc… I suppose we'll have to wait for tomorrow to find out, now won't we?