Chapter Text
It was a familiar face.
Not only because it looked like his own, but it somehow gnawed at something in the back of his mind. Like a word he knew but wouldn’t come out, at the tip of his tongue.
A permanent smile was etched into its features, inviting him to follow without a word uttered, and he complied. He felt that if he did, he would unlock an important memory from his mysterious past. The white coat of his doppelgänger flowed in the icy wind as if to beckon him further.
It was cold, winter in the highlands of Mount Coronet was almost as cold as the Alabaster icelands, but the harsh winds from the mountain made it much more unforgiving.
Ingo didn’t mind though, not now at least. The strange man clad in white led him further out into the stormy evening, clearly trying to lead him to something important.
His mind had a million thoughts and his heart ached, yet Ingo didn’t dare to say a thing as he followed the stranger, terrified it would break the spell somehow. Was the man even a stranger? He was so painfully familiar.
The pain in his muscles screaming at him to stop and find shelter went ignored, he couldn’t let this slip from his now ice cold fingers. His eyesight was foggy from the snowstorm and a darkness was worming its way from the edges of his vision, yet he kept walking.
He needed this.
He wouldn’t be able to go on without trying.
He needed to know.
He–
The man was gone.
Instead before him stood a beast.
A red flame, white-hot further in, surrounded the creature.
Piercing yellow eyes stared right at him and the gentle smile of the man turned into a sneering grin full of razor sharp teeth. It stood taller than him on its two legs and its roar was almost human but not quite, like a mocking laughter.
Ingo’s mind screamed at him to move but his body wouldn’t listen, as he could no longer feel his legs and arms. He could barely breathe, every gasp a thousand icy needles in his throat. His vision was getting darker and darker as the creature opened its jaws, revealing more sharp teeth, before it lunged at him.
His body finally started and he could move again as hot pain entered his left shoulder and Ingo shouted as the teeth of the creature sunk deeper into his flesh. He tried desperately to pry off the jaws of the animal with his stiff fingers but it had the opposite effect as the creature only growled and clawed away his hands, so he tried going for the eyes. He was somewhat successful at annoying the beast, and with his blunt nails scraping against its face the creature finally dropped him on the ground. Now however it instead lashed at him with equally razor-sharp claws while he laid there in the snow writhing in pain, blood spilling from his shoulder.
His mind was racing but he had no plans, he didn’t have his pokemons with him and he had no other means of defending himself. He had to somehow get out of there or get killed by this animal.
Laying on his back and having his arms try their best to shield his face and torso from the slashes thrown at him gave him no opportunity to run, so… This was it, huh.
He would never know about his past. He would never know who that man the creature impersonated was. He was going to be killed by this beast in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm without any answers or hope, as some kind of divine mockery to his quest.
It was a bitter end.
Oh well.
Last stop.
“Night Slash!”
The beast above him howled in anger, or was it pain? He couldn’t see it from his position and he was already losing consciousness, the last thing he heard was someone calling out his name.