Sakaki skids into the Pokémon center. He has to get ready for his upcoming battle with Palmer. His dragonair are coming along well, and he promised to help Palmer evolve his Rhydon. He can't wait to see what Palmer makes of the Febas he found.
"There's someone who would like to see you in the other room." The nurse informs him.
"Alright." He tells her, as he walks in. Maybe Palmer is early?
He could have made a million guesses, and never guessed it was his parents. His father? Sure.
But his mother? Wasn't she supposed to be in Kanto? Wasn't she supposed to stay in Kanto?
"Polly" his father whispers in a strained voice. "You can't just come and take my son away from me. Especially not in his gym challenge."
"Klaus, who are you to tell me what to do? Who is anyone? I do what pleases me?"
His mother is very self assured, and unfortunately not wrong. Who indeed tells a crime boss what to do? Not his father. Not when he's never so much as met his identical twin, despite his father arguing over it for years.
Then, what his father said she was here to do hits him, and he feels his knees go weak. Leave Sinnoh? Leave Palmer, and his family and his entire region, and even goddamned Lucy Kane?
His mother is a criminal! What could she possibly want with him?!
He falls. That's when they notice him.
"Sakaki" his father cries out, and comes to him. Its uncharacteristic of his father, but he's being hugged, before his father's arms tighten around him and pull him up.
"Is that what you called him? Very well, for now. Sakaki, I have come to bring you home. "
He doesn't tell her that he is home. It's the truth but she doesn't care about that. What she cares about is what he can do for her.
"What do you need me for?"
"I need an heir. I have a son. It's past time I began his training"
"What about my brother?"
She yawns. "What about him?"
That isn't good. It means something happened to him. Dead? Unsuitable?
Sakaki is probably not going to find out from her.
"No"
His Mother pulls out a gun. "I'm not the sort of person you say no to."
"And yet I am. I have to finish my gym challenges, and then I can wear whatever sort of mask you need me to."
He hopes his voice stays steady. He hopes he's not shaking. He hopes for a lot of things in this moment as he stares down his mother and her gun.
She lowers it.
"Very well. And once you are done with your gym challenge you will leave Sakaki behind with this region."
He doesn't yet know as he leaves that the mask he will put on will fuse to his face so well he couldn't pull it off even if he wanted to. There are some things you can't come back as a person from, and becoming a boss known for being ruthless is one of them.
All he knows, as he leaves his father behind to argue with his mother, is that he has bought more time.