Chapter 73

"I don't know how much you know about your grandfather and I'm not talking about Grandpa Rick. I mean your father's father, Theodore Skyborne, the Skyborne's patriarch who ruled with an iron fist.

As per tradition, once a Skyborne reaches the age of five, they are abandoned by the clan to fend for themselves. In the old times, that meant surviving out in the wild with nothing but their bodies. Before the creation of Pokeballs, they challenged pokemons with their bare bodies. The fools, I'm surprised that accursed clan lasted this long, but I guess I should be glad; otherwise, I wouldn't have met Oscar."

"Wait, what? They had to live out in the wild? At 5 years old? Until when? Until they died!?"

"Until the clan allowed them back. I met Oscar as a Charmeleon when he turned 4 years old after he ran away from home. The year he turned 5, Team Rocket struck and being a Skyborne, Oscar was scouted by the Pokemon Academy that was just recently built at the time. I'm sure you've already heard about how we rescued your mother in the Great Beyond so I'll skip that. Fast forward a couple years, Oscar graduated from the academy and we started running around all over the place completing missions."

"Mhm. I heard about how you two rescued my mother when everyone else gave up on her. And then I heard about how you blew up their base. Thank you. Thanks for saving my mom."

Smiling at Jax, Zennon smiled at the boy's reply. In his whole entire life, the little boy in front of him was the third person to ever thank him for anything, the first two being the boy's parents. "Mhm. Well, it was your father who saved Doria. I just set the enemy on fire. A couple years later, Oscar was called back to the clan. I wasn't allowed to go with him so I don't know what was discussed, but Oscar was never the same after coming back from the main house."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said. Oscar became more aloof. While he still loved your mother very much and we were still as thick as thieves, even I could tell that he was keeping something from me. I tried asking a couple of times but every time I brought it up, Oscar just told me it wasn't anything I needed to worry about. Not wanting to pry, I just let the matter drop. Only now do I realize what a mistake that was. Then, a week before you were born, Oscar took me to the spot we first me. Thinking that he was just nostalgic, I didn't think much of it…until he betrayed me. For over two decades, it had always just been the two of us. Even when we met other powerful pokemons like the King of Thora Forest, Oscar never added any other to his party. But on that day, a pokemon I had never seen before appeared and froze me in a block of ice. As strong as I was at the time, even I couldn't break free from it. After a long time trapped in ice, only recently did I break out and returned to Oscar and Doria's home."

"My daddy betrayed you? No way! From what I've heard from my mommy, father would never have betrayed you!"

"Mhm, I know that best. That's why I wanted to find him as soon as possible and get to the bottom of things. Imagine my surprise when I found a boy who looked just like him when he was younger! I thought Arceus was playing a sick joke on me and that I had actually regressed to the past. After calming down, only then did I realize that the boy who I saw was Oscar's son, you, Jax Skyborne."

As the two were still sitting in the middle of an empty field talking about the past seven years, back at Count Freiders' estate, news of what happened during the parade finally made their way to the inhabitants' ears.

"JAX MET THE EMPEROR? AND THEY ALMOST FOUGHT? AND A HUGE CHARIZARD APPEARED!?"

"That's what I heard from the maids and butlers who were whispering among themselves."

"W-where is Jax now? Don't tell me the Charizard a-ate him!?"

"Mhm, we don't know. The people in the city square attending the parade had already went into hiding after the Charizard showed up. I am having our family's soldiers patrolling the streets and outskirts around the city right now even as we speak."

"You HAVE to find him! I-I didn't even get a chance to hear his side of the story yet!"

As the two girls were discussing their next course of actions, Jax and Zennon's conversation came to an end. Jax learned many shocking things from what he had heard.

First, Zennon had been keeping an eye on Jax this whole time! From when Jax first received the egg from Kangaskhan all the way until his meeting with the Emperor, Zennon had been observing the boy all along. The only reason he had yet to appear was to allow the boy to experience the world and grow up unhindered. In fact, if Zennon didn't think Emperor Augustus was too much for the current Jax to handle, he wouldn't have shown up at all!

Second, concerned about Oscar's whereabouts, Zennon had been flying around the whole world in the past two years after knowing that Jax would be safe in the academy to find any traces of his trainer but no clues popped up. Almost as if someone or something was intentionally erasing any traces of Oscar!

The last thing Jax learned was that Oscar had left something behind for him! Zennon only knew the location but not what was inside. Jax wanted to go find this hidden safehouse right away but Zennon told Jax that Oscar had informed him only to show his boy the safehouse after he had become the champion of at least three regions first. He was only 7 years old right now! To even qualify for the preliminaries, Jax would have to be at least 10 years old and with how far each regions were, it would take at least two years traveling to two other regions!

"I know this isn't all you wanted to hear but this is all I can tell you at the moment. The other things about the Skybornes are simply just too far out of your reach at your current level. I've watched you from a long time and have seen how far you've progressed. Your rate of growth is out of this world. Just keep continuing what you've been doing so far." With those parting words, Zennon flew off in search of more clues about Oscar.