Surprise Visit! Axel Receives an Egg!

Axel had excused himself from the little group he had crafted a little bit ago, content to wander the city for a little while before he challenged the Gym Leader, Joshua. Neither Cyrus or Horus followed him; both Pokemon remained in their Pokeballs, safely stowed in his bag. A little while into this walk, Axel found himself at a small, secluded park with a single stone bench almost completely covered in vines, and the other part covered by the form of a hunched over man. The former Hoenn Trainer stood still for a moment, wondering what was different... Before he realized that he was freezing. Oddly enough, the young man didn't find this all that strange, and so walked slowly towards the man hunched forward on the stone bench.

As he neared, the man looked up, revealing sad grey eyes, a broken and hooked nose, and a scar on his left cheek, marring his beard. Speaking of his beard, it was frozen. Like, actual ice crystals had formed on the dirty grey hair. The man looked back down, leaving Axel staring only at the dirty grey hat upon his head. "Hello, Ghirion." Axel said softly as he came even closer. "It's been a while."

The man, Ghirion, turned his head away as Axel neared. "I... I have brought... Brought you a... A gift." a very faint voice said, the words stumbling out of his mouth. His breath wasn't visible, like Axel's, in the now-frigid air, and, as he talked, tiny pieces of cold white fell from the sky. Ghirion extended his arms, revealing a portable incubator housing a Pokemon egg.

Axel bowed his head in appreciation as he accepted the gift. Always accept gifts from Ghirion, as he had found out the first time they had met. "Thank you." he whispered. The young man then snapped his vision up as the snow came down, faster and thicker. Was that...?

"It is." Ghirion whispered

Axel's eyes widened as he watched events from his previous run as a Pokemon Trainer. There was the day he and Lee first met... The first time he beat a Gym... Battling his sister... Becoming a Pokemon Master. All events that were important to him. "You came to forget... But you... Have... Surrounded yourself with... With people who know... Know who you are." the man whispered to Axel. Axel looked down at the top of the incubator.

"They suspect it. Nothing more." he whispered in turn.

"They will... Will realize it. All in... In due time." Ghirion's voice whispered into Axel's ear as a cold gust of wind passed by his face. He looked up, unsurprised to see the fallen snow, cold, and Ghirion all gone.

"I'm sorry, Ghirion... You're right, and I know it. But... I think I'm going to have to accept that, and you're going to have to accept that I'm going to follow through on my decision." Axel said to the now-empty park, and then walked away.