Day 6 was a definite nightmare as far as Winter was concerned. All the preparation she had to rush through was a complete nightmare.

Whitley spent most of the time laughing at Winter as she ran her fingers through her hair so many times that it began to look messy yet extremely attractive. Red and Blake spent their time confused, unsure what was happening because Winter had no time to stop and explain and Whitley just said, "watch."

Winter had been carrying around bulky bags that Hunter had teleported in and seemed to be a mess all day.

"You guys have formal clothes, right?" Winter asked in the passing of several runs to the ballroom.

"Yeah," Blake mumbled. "I've learnt to keep one on me because the girls want to go to events and parties and stuff," Blake muttered irritably.

"Same," Red rolled his eyes in irritation.

"You don't happen to have that dress back at base, do you?" Whitley asked casually.

"I think, but Solar has a delivery for me today anyway," Winter muttered, taking a swig of ice water. "He probably has something for you as well if Gardevoir was helping him sew."

"Sweet because the dresses that the girls make me wear might be flattering and all, but it just makes me feel like a--"

"No bad words, Whitley," Winter chided, screwing the cap back onto her drink bottle.

"Says you!" Whitley protested.

Winter shrugged. "You have appearances to keep up around Dexholders, everyone knows I'm a sarcastic little b--"

"Bad words, Winter!" Whitley mimicked Winter in a nasty tone.

Winter groaned in frustration, not bothered to even think of a retort. She grabbed what appeared to be a makeup bag and a plain canvas bag that seemed to have a few rectangular objects stuffed into it. She slung the bag over her shoulder and stuffed the bag into it, leaving the room without any further words leaving her pretty pink lips.

She shut the door behind her, forgetting her card key she left next to her yogurt. Winter continued walking down the hallway, checking the canvas bag and cursing her sister for the haphazard way that she had packed the bag.

How could you have so little care for these beautiful canvases? Winter frowned.

Winter gasped, bumping into someone and feeling something hot splash all over her, seeping through her crop top, her shorts and most importantly, her bag. Without even thinking, she dropped to the floor in order to rummage through the bag and pulling out--

"Well, crap."

Winter wasn't quite frustrated so much as she was irritated. Who knew her sister would stuff a watercolour palette in the bag just in case any of the paintings needed any shitty touch-ups. Now the liquid from whatever the liquid was had activated the paint, ruined caused the paint from the palette and for the actual paintings to run.

Okay, there wasn't enough time to touch up the paintings nor were most of them repairable since the liquid was brown.

"I knew you were Pink,"

Winter's head whipped up, recognising the voice and glared. "What the hell are you talking about?" she snorted gracefully, looking at Silver in disdain.

"You're her, right?" Silver prompted, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

"Oh," Winter answered neutrally, "that," she muttered. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and she quickly gathered the canvases, shoving most of them back into the bag with little care. She was already in trouble for ruining them anyway.

Silver watched, waiting for Winter's next words. He knew how well Winter could act and how well she could lie, so he had to stay on guard.

"Well?" Silver prompted, crushing the empty disposable coffee cup in his hand impatiently as Winter stood up. His eyes trailed over her slim figure and to her soaked white crop top that had become transparent, especially around her chest area.

He couldn't help but stare.

Winter placed her hands on her hip, not realising and exposing herself even more. "What do you want me to say? Are you expecting me to say anything?"

Noticing that Silver wasn't responding and that his eyes were nowhere near her own, she followed his gaze down her very visible bra.

Fuck, of course it was the one day she knew she wouldn't be swimming so she put on a normal bra that happened to be black lace.

Okay, now Winter was thoroughly vexed.

"Wow, even the quiet ones don't always have the decency to look away." Winter harrumphed in dissatisfaction before turning heel to head back into her shared room with Whitley only a few steps away.

Silver simply stood there, not saying anything and just watching her.

Winter reached into her pocket with one hand, keeping the other above her chest to cover up slightly. She cursed, embarrassed when she realised that the card key wasn't with her. Silver was still there, saying and doing nothing.

Fuck, even a nasty laugh could've made it better so that she'd have an indication as to what Silver thought.

Unable to concentrate enough to use her Glamour to control the lock to open on its own, she banged harshly on the door.

"Just a moment!"

A 'moment' took way too long with Silver's steely gaze on her. Winter was growing more and more flustered by the second, beginning to shuffle nervously as the torturous seconds ticked along merrily.

Doing anything would let Silver know how anxious she was to get out of the situation and that would make her an easy target for his teasing, so that was a definite no.

Silver wasn't helping by simply staring and admiring the piece of art that was Winter or Pink. Finally, he found out the truth.

Winter and Pink were one and the same.

"You know, I hate to repeat myself," Winter muttered. "Get those filthy eyes off of me."

"It's not like you cover up on a normal day anyway," Silver scoffed, trying to act normally after hiding behind an obviously fake cough.

Winter dropped the bag and tugged her white crop top off entirely in retaliation, standing there in nothing but her bra and shorts. The door finally opened and Winter cast a scowl over to Silver before walking in and kicking the door shut behind her.

"What happened now?" Red sighed, noticing how angry Winter and the scrunched up crop top she dropped onto the floor. Blake and Red both looked away politely and Whitley handed Winter another white crop top.

Winter quickly changed into her top and crashed down onto her bed after dropping the bag of canvases.

"Fucking Silver,"

~~~~~

Silver smirked, tightening his red tie before shrugging on his blazer. He wasn't going to stop teasing Winter for the entire night. He was going to annoy her since she wasn't allowed to talk as Pink.

Yeah, it was going to be a fun night.

Game on, Pink.

~~~~~

Silver stepped into the ballroom, trailing behind the other dexholders slugma-ishly (sluggishly). To say that he was excited for what was to come was an understatement, to say the least. He knew Pink's little secret.

He showed no protest when getting ready because some of the Dexholders were too enamoured by the fame they had just from dumb connections that they happened to have with Pokemon Professors, loving the attention they had simply for being a coveted Dexholder.

Of course, everyone was strong in their own right, more so than the average trainer and had their own talents that Professor Oak recognised. But it felt like some of them enjoyed the attention just a little too much and tried to be at all the 'hip' and 'cool' parties, riding off their fame from the Pokemon Training Industry and into other forms of entertainment, meeting musicians like Lady Gengar, Justin Bibarel, Selena Golem and so many other famous actresses, CEOs, the list just drones on.

It was a given that they'd all want to impress, spending hours meticulously picking out outfits that seemed all too outrageous and so very uncomfortable. Silver sat through it all patiently this time, hiding his leg that seemed to bounce up and down in excitement.

Now that he was in the Ballroom, all he had to do was wait for Winter to show up as Pink. Simple. He kept close to the door, eyeing it with impatient glances every so often. It was only a matter of time.

~~~~~

Winter resisted the urge to rub her itchy eyes as she hovered her hands above them for the umpteenth time. She pouted when she heard Whitley giggle.

"Let me see," Whitley murmured, taking Winter's cold hand and pulling it aside. Whitley carefully looked into Winter's eyes and groaned in dismay, slapping Winter lightly. "Winter," she spoke disapprovingly in a disappointed tone. "You know better than to-"

"I have to do what I have to do," Winter shrugged nonchalantly, shrugging Whitley off.

"You're damaging your eyes like this," Whitley slowly tried to heal Winter's eyes with what little magic she had.

"Technically can't damage my eyes," Winter shrugged. "Because you can always reverse the damage."

"But I can't create miracles Winter," Whitley chided. "If you become blind one day because you're rubbing your eyes like that and basically abusing them like you are, I can't heal them."

Winter rolled her eyes like a petulant child before Whitley stepped back. "If that happens, I'll still have the power of aura."

"Hisoka does that?" Red asked. "I thought that Mew, Gallades and Lucarios were literally the last link with aura that we have."

"No," Winter admitted quietly. "Hisoka isn't gifted with aura, but we're essentially aura guardians. If we all try, we can do some basic stuff, but nothing too extreme like actual Aura Guardians, that is unless we have the blood of one. Just consider it as apart of your Glamour, much easier."

"After you've said that, I'm assuming Glamour isn't everything we call Glamour, right?" Blake asked.

Winter nodded. "Glamour is roughly just enchantments, I guess. Mainly things like tricking other people's eyes into not seeing stuff, like our marks or our features, like my hair. There's also this filter that we have so that we can see through each other's physical Glamours. I also call moving stuff with our mind Glamour and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't actually count. I call everything that we can do simply because we're Guardians, Glamour," her seafoam eyes twinkled with concentration, thinking hard about the way that she did things.

"A filter?" Red repeated slowly in confusion.

"You know how you can't see any of my marks?" Winter asked, gesturing her chest, back and her foot, all exposed to the air in the black playsuit that she wore. It had a halter neck held up with thin black straps around her neck, revealing her creamy chest and her entire back with some cute pleated bottoms. She wore strappy black heels to match.

"Yeah?"

"Blink four times while thinking that you want to see through Glamour," she ordered.

Blake did just that, blinking four times and imagining that he could see the beautiful mark on Winter's lower back. What he didn't expect to also see was how scarred her back was.

"Blake, you okay?" Red asked.

Blake guessed that he must've done something to tip off Red's horror. "Don't you see it?"

"See what?" Red asked, looking at Winter's back. He quickly did as Winter had instructed, trying to see what Blake was referring to.

"Hol--"

"Winter," Whitley spoke up calmly. "What the hell happened to your back?"

Winter shrugged, turning back to face them properly. "Team Shade happened. Torture for information and all those shenanigans. It's healing, slowly though."

What none of them were able to understand was exactly how Winter was just shrugging it off, like it was normal.

"How could you just talk about your back like that?" Blake murmured, horror filling his veins.

"Oh," Winter shrugged. "It's on my stomach too. Lunar gave me a lecture about it, that day in Mochalon Town when she just showed up and we teleported away. I mean, yeah it hurt like a bitch but it doesn't hurt anymore, right? Plus, it's how I met Hisoka. I can't regret a couple of scars if I was able to meet Hisoka and discover so much of Team Shade's plans."

They were literally standing right outside the entrance to the ballroom, having a casual conversation about the scars that Winter had. Yep, just another normal day.

No, seriously.

"If it makes you uncomfortable, you'll eventually learn how to be selective about which Glamours you don't see through," Winter added, just in case. "Whether you do or don't want to see them, I don't care because you can adjust your sight. Even if you complain to me, I'm not going to always cover them up because I don't have to."

"Winter, we're not going to go as far as that," Blake frowned. "Who do you think we are?"

Winter shrugged. "Just in case, you know? There are some assholes out there and I wouldn't be surprised if we got stuck with a few."

"A... few?" Red chatotted (parrotted) in confusion.

"Scratch that, everyone's an asshole, Adrian's the flirty asshole, Blake can be an asshole if duty calls for it, Red is an asshole to someone's feelings, I'm an asshole, Whitley's can be an asshole if she feels like it, Lunar's the 'ignore you for years' asshole, Solar's the fashion asshole, my sister's the technical asshole who goes all smart alec on people, we're all assholes here."

"There's too many assholes in one sentence to fully compute," Red said robotically, sending giggles around the group.

"Should we head in?" Whitley asked, smoothing out her light blue dress. It sported a strapless sweetheart neckline, a white strip of fabric tied around her waist before flowing out into a skater skirt that reached just above her knees. She wore a pair of white pumps with her hair down to prevent people from recognising her too easily.

"And see what the hell Lyra's wearing? No thanks," Winter scrunched her nose up in distaste.

Blake looked around at Red and Whitley and both of them seemed to understand. He thought for a moment. then it clicked. Winter saw how Lyra had dressed during the concert.

Blake would never be able to erase the horrendous sight from his mind because every time Lyra dressed up, it was disastrous.

Think of the beautiful naked dress trend that Riarbok (Rihanna) started, but in a sheer baby pink with similar colour lace that had long sleeves and flowed to the ankles. The dress alone was beautiful, revealing yes, but elegant and glamorous all the same. Now, think of that dress on a slim body with no curves, thigh-high neon pink stilettos, hideous fluorescent bracelets that covered her entire forearms and a statement necklace to match. Let's not forget the huge silver hooped earrings that seemed to be coloured with a pink highlighter.

Oh, her hair and makeup too, but let's start with her skin. Her entire body had been dyed this ugly orange colour that did not suit her complexion. It was clearly patchy and several different shades. Her face was covered in acne scarring and pimples due to the amount of makeup she used. Still, she piled on makeup in ridiculous quantities, trying to cover up and not accentuate. Unblended eyeshadow and contour, chunky mascara, dry lips with matte liquid lipstick by Klefki Jenner (Kylie Jenner) with the wrong lipliner to match and hideously overdrawn lips, ugly eyebrows and uneven winged eyeliner. Lyra also made the beginners mistake of putting powder on liquid and vice versa.

Her hair had been covered in hair chalk with neon highlights and then curled, further showing off her lovely damaged hair and how dead her hair was in general. Oh, her concealer, foundation and powder were all different colours and none of them matched her skin.

Lyra felt beautiful, arrogantly thinking that the looks of disgust she received were jealousy from females and adoration from males. She had absolutely no idea.

"Winter," Red frowned in disapproval. "I get that no one here likes her, but play nice at least. We're public figures."

"I have no filter," Winter shrugged before walking through the doors of the ballroom. The soft clicks of her heels resounded as Winter took fast, paced steps down the stairs. Immediately, she caught the attention of many people.

Whitley sighed and raced after Winter, quickly descending the stairs until she reached Winter and grabbed Winter's hand with a soft smile. Winter returned the gesture, sending Whitley a tender smile herself. Whitley shyly laced their fingers together, a nervous habit of hers. She liked playing with someone else's hands.

Winter scanned the crowd as she descending, catching sight of all the canvases that she had worked hard to transport. She smiled in satisfaction, knowing that they'd all be auctioned off at high prices.

Then, she spotted the Dexholders.

Holding back a grimace, she and Whitley waited at the foot of the stairs for Red and Blake, who hurried to keep up with the two girls. Once they were together again, they moved to a less populated area toward the side of the room.

Silver watched, gaping. Of course Winter would refuse to show up as Pink to prove a point. Unless Pink showed up, Silver was almost entirely certain that they were the same person, but then again, Winter and Pink had different eyes. Let's not forget the sister thing either.

Then again, it was a rarity for Pink to show up at her own exhibitions.

Silver honestly had no idea anymore. Pink and Winter were too confusing, yet he couldn't take his eyes off of the seafoam eyed girl's figure off in the distance, looking beautiful and regal in the way that she held herself, nothing like the ruffian she sometimes acted like.

Honestly, she was just so gorgeous standing there.

From the slight tilt of her head to the way she balanced her weight on her left leg and the way her pink hair had adjusted to messy curls and waves that seemed so perfectly styled, Silver was enamoured.

"Silvy~"

Silver groaned, feeling a sudden weight on his right arm as Lyra clamped onto it. He looked at her, about to say something. When he saw her, his voice died in his throat.

"What?" Lyra shuffled, pretending to be modest and shy. "Whitley made me wear this, so I'm kinda embarrassed," she mumbled.

Come on, everyone knew about Lyra and Whitley's fight where Whitley chose Winter over Lyra, especially because Whitley and Winter have been inseparable since.

"I thought Whitley was with Winter," Silver grumbled, shaking Lyra off to grab a mini cupcake with one hand and a glass of wine with the other to stop Lyra from reattaching herself.

"Whitley ditched that bitch and came back to me," Lyra laughed in a forced high pitched cackle. "I'm more loveable than Spring or whatever her name is."

Silver raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. "It's Winter, it's not hard to remember."

Lyra coughed, shuffling in embarrassment. "O-of course, Winter," she repeated, trying to sound confident.

Silver rolled his eyes, taking a small sip of wine as he tried to move his body so that he wasn't facing Lyra so directly, giving the hint that he didn't want her company. Lyra, of course, could not take the simple hint and continued to talk.

"Honestly, I don't get why no one wants to kick Winter out of the Dexholders and replace her with me. We all know how mean and rude she is. She's just an ugly bitch who has no idea. She's ignorant and I don't even know how she even managed to defeat you. Maybe it's beginner's luck or she cheated."

Silver flared up at that. Lyra was the ignorant one. Winter was powerful, much more so than she probably let on.

"I'm pretty sure that Arceus made a mistake in choosing her. Actually, no. She's probably making it up and that male Gardevoir of hers is doing everything and tricking us into thinking that she's telling the truth. What a loser, doing everything she can for attention!"

"Have you seen how two faced she is! In front of the goth bitch, handsome blond, Red, Lack-Two and Whi-two she acts like a fucking angel and then in front of everyone else, she disrespects like it's nobody's business."

"Lyra," Silver finally spoke up, exasperated.

"Yes?" she responded eagerly.

Silver hadn't planned that far. He had no idea what to say. "Winter's... interesting," he decided to say.

"Yeah, she is!" Lyra agreed readily.

Silver sighed and set his glass of wine down on a passing waiter's tray. He shoved the cupcake into his mouth before he began to walk off, toward Winter.

"No, Hisoka isn't back yet," Winter admitted. "It makes me uneasy, to be honest," she murmured. "But Adrian needs Hisoka more than I do and his Guardian is being forced to stay away for safety reasons. Thing is, separation anxiety does form between Guardians and the longer the separation is, no matter the reason, gets worse."

"Winnie," Whitley sighed, placing a hand on the older girl. "It's okay, none of us feel whole."

Winter sighed, nodding. "I need to find everyone and bring--"

Blake coughed, cutting Winter off and prompting Winter to throw a glance his way. Winter whirled around and rolled her eyes.

"Silver, what do you want?" Winter stood in front of her friends protectively.

Silver smirked, gesturing the paintings. "Not Pink, eh?"

"Silver, she shows up like once a year or at extremely important exhibitions," Whitley spoke softly. "It's rare to see her and... she just uses people."

"I don't actually care about whether you think me and her are the same or not. It's none of your business and no one's actually going to believe you." Winter shrugged. "Now, run along Silver, we were having a private conversation."

"I figured out your secret," Silver smirked before meandering off.

Winter rolled her eyes and turned back to her friends. "Where were we?"

~~~~~

Winter rubbed furiously at her seafoam eyes before Whitley literally dragged Winter's arms away from her eyes.

"You slept like that?" Whitley hissed in irritation. "Winter!"

Winter slapped Whitley's arms away half heartedly. "I know!"

"Winter, I have almost zero magic right now and I can barely heal your eyes like this!" Whitley pouted, waving her hands over Winter's eyes, hurriedly fixing some of the damage and refreshing Winter's eyes.

"We're about to get off the boat in Lilycove and we'll be travelling to Evergrande City from there," Red told the two girls, approaching with Blake by his side. "That's where the meeting will be held."

"Isn't Evergrande basically an island?" Winter frowned.

"Yeah, we'll be flying, surfing or boating," Blake confirmed. "Whitley only has Dake-chan though and I'm not sure how she'll take to being on a boat."

"I love you, Whitley but I'm not going to sit on a boat with all of them for you," Winter scrunched her nose up in distaste.

"I didn't expect you to," Whitley giggled.

"I can stay with her," Blake offered.

"Yeah, I will too," Red added. "Not because I don't trust you, Blake. I just need to make sure no one messes with either of you."

"Gotcha," Blake grinned.

As soon as the entire group assembled at the harbour, Winter shoved her bag into Whitley's arms and began to strip off her top, shorts, shoes and socks down to her bikini. Nevermind the people watching her, she threw Kairi out into the water and dived in, trusting Kairi to catch her.

When they both surfaced, Winter giggled, wrapping her arms and legs around Kairi's slim body.

"Take care of yourself!" Whitley called out to Winter.

"I will! I'll see you there!" Winter smiled softly.

"Winter, don't drown!" Red joked.

Winter pouted before whispering some soft orders into Kairi's ear. Kairi cooed before diving back underwater with Winter in tow.

A few seconds later, a school of Finneon and Lumineon jumped out of the water in the distance with Kairi and Winter surfacing in the centre of them, giggling happily.

"She looks so happy in her element," Whitley noted quietly, making Blake hum in agreement.

The other three Skarians just sighed in disappointment.

~~~~~

Everyone was expecting Winter to be there before they were, waiting in a corner or playing with Kairi at least. To their surprise, they were nowhere to be seen. Red had asked Poli to check underwater for them, but couldn't find any trace.

Reluctantly, they headed up to the Champion's Tower, where the conference was to be held. They were all lead to rooms that they shared with another person, but were to stick with a person from their region if they were of the same gender.

So, Red was stuck with Green, Whitley was stuck with White and Blake with Black.

None of them were really happy, to say the least.

"Oh, Red! Whitley! Blake!"

The sunny blond bounded up to the three, even giving Whitley a kiss on the cheek as a greeting. Behind him were two people, Lunar and a tall man, hunched over with messy black hair with red tips covering a bit of his eyes.

"This is Adrian, Alola's reigning Island Challenge Champion," Solar explained. "We'll talk more when Winter's here."

"Do you know where she is?" Red asked hopefully.

Lunar simply shrugged. "Her sister hasn't arrived either...."

Whitley seemed to deflate a little at that.

Like a storm, a blur of pink rushed past and knocked Adrian to the floor.

"Adrian!"

"Babe--"

"Adrian! Don't you dare pull another stunt like that!" Winter hissed, straddling Adrian in her usual outfit despite never getting it back from Whitley. "If you don't start flirting with everything in this room within the next week, I'm actually going to fuck Team Shade up from the inside out!"

Adrian smiled softly, reaching up and brushing Winter's hair out of her face. "Sure thing, babe."

Winter grabbed Adrian's shirt and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry," she apologised quietly.

"For what?" Adrian chuckled. "You're too cute, Winter."

Instead of fighting, Winter pouted, relaxing against Adrian's familiar warmth.

"Why is Winter okay with you and Adrian flirting with her?" Blake decided to bite the bullet and simply ask to satisfy their curiosity.

"Because Winter knows that's just how we are and we honestly mean no harm. She's like our little sister," Solar grinned, ruffling Winter's hair before lifting her out of Adrian's arms and setting her down.

Winter pouted again turning away. "Lulu, Whitley, we're heading out for a while."

"Why?" Whitley asked.

"Red, you take Solar, Adrian and Blake out for some scouting and training," Winter continued. "Whitley and Blake need to fill up their teams quickly otherwise this could turn out badly."

"There's a lot to be done," Red mumbled, eyeing the Dexholders, Champions, Elite Fours, Gym Leaders and more out of the corner of his eye. The only ones giving them attention were the Dexholders and several others, otherwise, they were engrossed in their own discussions.

"Lunar, Solar, I want you two to locate the portals," Winter continued. "Onee-chan should show up within the next few days. Adrian and I will need to head back to Alola really briefly to assess the damage and stuff over there. Otherwise, whenever we're free, we're going to be combing through the entire region," Winter explained. "We'll move to Johto if we have the time by teleporting."

"Ah, Red! Whi-Two! Lack-Two! How are you three?"

"Professor Oak!" all three chimed together.

"Oh, and you must be Winter!" Professor Oak eyed the pink haired girl up and down. "You look like a Coordinator! Do you have contests in Skaria?"

"Yes," Winter responded, deciding to play nice. "I'm the Champion of Skaria and these two are Solar and Lunar, Eighth and Seventh Gym Leaders of Skaria, Lunar is also the Head of Gym Leaders. The black haired man is Adrian, Island Challenge Champion of Alola."

"Does he know Sun and Moon, the dexholders of Alola?" Oak asked eagerly.

Adrian nodded. "The Kahunas and Trial Captains have been talking about them."

"Oh, how wonderful!"

"I wonder what your nickname's going to be," Red grinned, speaking to Winter.

"Ah, yes! I'll need to bestow three nicknames on the Skarian Dexholders! I have time to see what you three are capable of," Oak smiled. "Let's see what your worth is."

Winter nodded curtly before turning to Solar and Lunar, deciding to speak in Skarian (Norwegian). "How long are we meant to be here?"

"You want out already?" Solar chuckled.

"Shush,"

"Sure, Treasure." Solar grinned. "No idea, I think that this is about Team Shade. This could take a while."

"I might have to jump out to do a few challengers because my Guardians aren't here to protect me," Winter pouted, nudging both of them.

Lunar smiled fondly, shaking her head. "Do you think Crescent will be here?"

Winter scrunched her nose up and nodded. She swiped up to check the time on her Skysmitter and frowned. "Lunar, Solar, give me all the locations that Team Shade has been spotted in for the last 6 months."

Winter summoned a worldwide map of all the regions and sat down at one of the tables, Solar and Lunar sitting down and getting comfortable too.

"What about Whitley and Blake?" Solar asked.

"They'll have to wait, I think that it's more important to get this information and research down," Winter muttered.

"Winter," Red spoke up. "It'd be nice to know what you're doing."

Winter looked up, smiling mareepishly (sheepishly). "Sorry, the three of us just need to get some work done and then we can head out. If you guys are impatient, go ahead without us. We'll take a while."

"We'll stay," Whitley mumbled, dragging a chair to sit down with them.

Winter smiled gratefully as Lunar and Solar scanned through articles and information on their Skysmitter. "Forget about Poni Island, I've got that from Adrian."

"Then add Po Town," Solar muttered. "Make a note that Po Town is where Team Skull was before because they've been spotted around Celadon City's Game Corner, you know the one that used to hide the Rocket Hideout?"

Winter narrowed her eyes but marked the location down.

"Milos Island, Unova."

Winter marked that location down on her map as well, looking to see both were doing their best to track down any mentions of Team Shade or anything that seemed to resemble them.

"Alright, that's all the Rocket bases. We also have Mahogany Town in Johto, Island Five on the Servii Islands. I'm pretty sure all the other major Team bases have been visited."

"Gracidea, Sinnoh. Marked as uncertain."

Winter was growing more and more worried, seeing the sightings seemed to be eerily frequent.

"Hoenn, Mount Chimney for Magma and Hoenn, Lilycove City for Aqua. Team Galactic's Eterna and Veilstone Cities."

"Solar, Lunar, are you guys absolutely sure? This is way too frequent and obvious."

"I'm 100% sure Winnie."

"Yeah," Lunar mumbled in agreement.

Winter furrowed her brows as she began to mark more locations, colour coding them according to Solar and Lunar's words.

"Winter," Adrian spoke up quietly, placing a hand on Winter's shoulder.

Winter looked up, wide eyed with surprise. She held back a yelp and looked to Adrian, questioning. "Hisoka's waiting outside."

Winter swiped the screen of her Skysmitter away, scrambling to get out of her chair and she sprinted outside. Without thinking, she jumped into Hisoka's cold, scaly arms and relaxed, feeling safer.

Hisoka nuzzled Winter's hair silently, holding the girl, glad to be reunited with her too. Winter pulled herself back, stepping back a few steps before dropping to one knee, bowing to Hisoka. "Thank you for taking care of Adrian, Hisoka."

Everyone who followed Winter out watched in admiration at Winter's action and flat out respect for her Pokemon. Maybe it was just a Guardian thing, but to see something to pure was breathtaking.

What was even more amazing was the way that Hisoka flew around Winter, circling and descending until he wrapped his purple body around Winter, making her laugh and tickle his chin playfully. Hisoka snorted, tail swishing around in joy.

"Come on," Winter giggled, standing up and dusting herself off. She eyed a berry bush full of Liechi Berries and her seafoam eyes glowed, plucking the berries and offering it to Hisoka.

Hisoka lazily opened his big mouth, expecting Winter to drop them in his mouth, but she giggled, pulling the berries back. Hisoka growled playfully, moving his head to try and eat the berries. Every single time, the berries danced out of his range.

Winter knew that Hisoka was about to pull something, so she quickly turned her blood cold. Hisoka pawed at her, trying to break her concentration, but Winter's skin was too cold, causing Hisoka to recoil with a small whine.

Giving up, Hisoka collapsed onto the ground with another whine. Winter giggled and dropped the berries into her arms, feeding Hisoka fondly.

"Did you get any information?" Winter asked as she fed Hisoka.

Hisoka took one of his claws and began to write in neat characters of the ancient lost language. I saw them near Terminus Cave, Zygarde's dwellings.

Winter completely froze. "Lulu, Gracidea and Milos Island."

Lunar hummed, first in a tone of agreement before the tone changed to questioning.

"That's where Shaymin lives and where the the Forces of Nature can be summoned, right?" Winter's eyes went wide with terror. "Hisoka, is everyone still in the meeting?"

Yes. The meeting is still ongoing.

Winter stood up, beginning to pace anxiously.

"Winnie, let us hear what you're thinking," Adrian urged. "We're not going to get anywhere if you don't talk to us."

"I think I know what Team Shade's up to," Winter admitted. "Nothing set in stone, just a theory but I'll investigate it further. Hisoka, go to the meeting and urge everyone to stay away and urge the Guardians to either stay away from us or stay with us."

Kasumi, Guardians aren't allowed to force themselves to do things like that unless we've bonded. If they haven't bonded, they aren't allowed to force themselves to stay in a specific location if fate calls.

"That could endanger them...."

Fate works in mysterious ways, Kasumi. Trust Lumauria, Kaarinim and I.

Winter smiled weakly before nodding.

"Go Hisoka, and tell them that I apologise."

Kasumi, you have nothing to apologise for.

* * * * *

Okay, full disclosure I did not mean to put my favourite band as the first two words of this chapter, thanks.

You know, I'm amazing at naming these chapters. I keep reusing colours... in a row =_= and I can't always explain why I name my chapters certain colours otherwise it'll give something away..... URGH.

Btw, describing Lyra and her horrible fashion choices is really fun to me. Just lowkey making fun of some people I know and their makeup. I kinda like makeup and fashion, so it's kinda a rant in a way. Still, fun and amusing to write and describe in as little words as possible whilst mentioning everything.

Just saying, I wrote everything above while I was writing the chapter... soooo.......This chapter took me wayyy too long since I had to redo the party. The entire chapter was originally going to be about the party, but I felt that it was kinda useless to drag it out since I already had the important information down.

Pink and Winter... you'll never guess XD