"Whitley? Lunar?" Red frowned in confusion, seeing both of them standing in front of the Pokemon centre.

"Hey," Whitley smiled. "The Draconid People are helping us, so if you want to find us, go to Meteor Village."

"Is it safe?" Red frowned. "And that Swablu...."

"I'll take care of this little one," Whitley smiled. "Neither of them has woken up yet but how's Moltres going?"

Red shook his head with a fake smile. "It's fine, don't worry about me. Hurry back and take care of those two, alright?"

Lunar and Whitley nodded before quickly backing off.

~~~~~

Whitley wiped the sweat from her head off using the back of her hand, looking at Winter and Adrian. I know that Adrian's Guardian is some sort of water type, but what exactly, I have no idea. Maybe he'd heal faster if his Guardian was around.

"Winter's still sleeping?" Solar asked.

Whitley sighed, nodding. "Adrian's not showing any signs of improvement, but Winter's fever has gone down, it's not gone but Articuno's definitely helping."

Solar nodded quietly. "There's a potion that Winter would always drink after Team Shade. It was like a miracle potion, it healed basically anything. She never told us what was in it, but I thought that you should know about it."

Whitley thought before frowning. "It probably lost its effectiveness," she murmured. "If the scars she has are anything to go by."

Solar bit his lip, nodding. "If only the rest of us weren't so useless and... if only Cynthia was here, then maybe...."

"It can't be helped, Solar," Whitley reassured him. "It's all going to be okay. I'll make sure that they recover properly."

Solar nodded weakly, frown still prominent on his face.

~~~~~

Whitley used as much magic as she could wring out of herself to try and help Adrian recover. She didn't have much and it was really taxing to use it, but she had no choice. She had to do something, no matter how little or stressful it was.

Whitley immediately spun around when she heard Articuno start to twitter nervously.

"Treas!"

"Hey," Winter mumbled, slowly sitting up, hands brushing across Articuno's soft feathers in search of some cooling comfort. "What happened?"

Whitley ignored Winter, feeling her forehead and looking her up and down. "Your fever's almost gone," she noted.

"Is Adrian okay? I don't remember much..." Winter admitted, ashamed.

"He..." Whitley hesitated. "I think you lost consciousness, but Adrian carried you through the lava so you only overheated, but Adrian...."

Winter scrambled up, eyes searching around frantically for Adrian. "He didn't!"

"Treas, please," Whitley murmured, tugging Winter's sleeve down. "Please calm down, you're not fully healed yet."

"Adrian's a fucking dumbass! Why the hell would he do that?" Winter purposely fell back onto Articuno, hugging the Freeze Pokemon closer.

Whitley sighed, petting Winter comfortingly. "Everything's going to be okay," she murmured before standing up. Whitley nodded at Articuno, trusting the Freeze Pokemon to take care of the upset girl.

Whitley quickly got up and looked around the village. Solar, Lunar and Blake weren't in the village having gone out of Meteor Falls for some air. "Artemis!"

Artemis yipped, uncurling from Volcarona, Lunar's Hydreigon and Solar's two Meowstics, Nyx and Necro. Whitley knew that all three had purposely left powerful Pokemon for Whitley just in case anything happened. "Come get me if anything happens! I'm going to go get the others! Winter, behave!"

Winter responded with something unintelligible, but Whitley took it as approval anyway. She was glad that none of the Draconid People decided to make a fuss over Winter waking up.

As fast as she could, Whitley ran out of the cave, looking around Route 114 frantically. "BLAKE! SOLAR! LUNAR!" she yelled, running around in hopes of spotting them and not having to search through Fallabour Town.

"Whitley?" Blake asked, sitting up properly. All three were just lying around in the grass lazily, having a casual conversation.

"Winter's awake!" Whitley gasped, looking proud of herself.

All three Guardians scrambled onto their feet, frantically and they all rushed back to see Winter next to Adrian, carefully examining the damage.

"You can fix this, right?" Winter asked, sensing Whitley come back.

Whitley smiled reassuringly at Winter, nodding. "Yeah, he'll be okay."

Winter breathed out in relief, eyebrows furrowed in worry. "I got the information," she admitted, holding up a pink Skysmitter. "We didn't bother stopping to read anything, just took pictures and left so that we can say that it wasn't even worth the trip anyway."

"Sorry ... couldn't stop them..." Lunar apologised quietly.

Winter shook her head. "Doesn't matter anymore, I ended up finding Articuno. Caught her after Whitley left to get you guys, so can you guys just say that she flew off? I'm going to try to get into contact with Adrian's Guardian to try and help him out, but for now, we should head back to the meeting. This will give me a reason to be more disagreeable. We'll need to discuss some plans with Cynthia and we're gonna leave soon. Where are the rest of the Dexholders now?"

"Fallabour, Red's trying to get Moltres back, but no luck. Most of them are so guilty that they locked themselves into their rooms in the Pokemon Centre," Blake shrugged. "What about Adrian?"

"No teleporting!"

"Hisoka can fly him," Winter dismissed it.

"Leaving already?" Zinnia asked casually. "Wouldn't it be wise for her to rest a little more?"

"I'm Winter, a Guardian," Winter introduced herself. "Thank you so much for your hospitality...?"

"Zinnia," she answered with a smile.

"Zinnia," Winter reaffirmed with a small smile. "We need to get going because Adrian and I need to go into hiding soon. Thank you once again."

"Guardians are so curious, aren't they?" Zinnia murmured. "We give you all of our best wishes, from us and the Dragon Lord."

Winter smiled, watching as Nyx gently lifted Adrian up. "All the best wishes from us and our thanks," Winter bowed, knowing that the others had gone to collect what little they had.

~~~~~

"Hey Volcarona," Blake murmured, holding the Pokeball in his hand. "How are you feeling?"

Volcarona sang, nodding. Whitley had healed him to the point he was perfectly fine to return to the wild.

"Well, I guess it's time then," Blake smiled sadly, having grown attached at Volcarona during their brief time together. He held the Pokeball in his hand and then dropped it, planning to crush it with his foot.

"Raaa!" Volcarona screeched, catching the Pokeball with a gentle Gust to prevent it from dropping.

Blake smiled, chuckling, taking the Pokeball again and wrapping his arms around Volcarona.

"Thank you."

~~~~~

"They're back!"

Winter sighed, sensing that Hisoka had almost arrived. She knew that she looked really messed up, having been unconscious for several days straight, how long she had no idea. She hadn't showered for most of it and her hair was probably a mess. She clutched Adrian's jacket closer, inhaling his familiar scent of sandalwood and rosewood mixed with citrusy lemon and clementine. His enchantment had lasted, working to keep Winter cold.

"Hey, what happened?" Yellow asked, noticing something off with the group.

Winter didn't even bother saying anything, sensing Hisoka grow near. She turned around as Hisoka swooped down, landing. Winter sighed again, stepping toward Hisoka and bowing half heartedly, not even bothering to drop on a knee before Gardevoir took Adrian off of Hisoka's back.

"They're back!" White cried, running out with more people following her.

"Did you get the information?"

Winter just looked at Adrian, lips trembling. Whatever information they got, it probably wasn't worth Adrian walking through lava to save her.

"There was none," Red muttered, lowing his cap.

Winter sighed, clutching the jacket closer again. She walked up to Adrian and grabbed a Dive Ball from his belt and nodded at Solar before climbing back onto Hisoka, burying her face into Hisoka's neck.

Hisoka glared and roared before he flapped his wings, flying off.

~~~~~

The anger from the Guardians who went to Mount Chimney was silent but deadly. None of them chose to speak much and Winter had been gone for several hours.

The tension was almost too much to bear.

Winter walked into the room, looking over at Solar and holding up a Dive Ball with a sad smile. "She's angry," was all Winter muttered.

"My room," Solar murmured back.

Winter nodded, running her fingers through her greasy hair with a sigh. Winter headed down the hallways until she reached Solar's room. She knocked gently before entering.

~~~~~

"Hey, Winter?" Whitley spoke up.

Winter hummed tiredly in response, looking at the destruction in the room.

"There's nothing left to do here, we'll leave her here and we'll go take a break," Whitley urged. "You're not completely okay yet, so I'll make you some iced tea."

Winter nodded drowsily, looking at Adrian and his Guardian one last time before following Whitley out of the room. Whitley made Winter some herbal tea and cooled it down using some ice, forcing Winter to drink all of it.

Winter did everything that Whitley wanted her to, like a lifeless doll. Whitley frowned, almost wanting to slap Winter out of it, but she sighed, resigning herself in her seat next to Blake. Winter sat with them, sipping on her tea quietly.

"I'd hate to be the one who's like this, but... what if Winter's lying?"

"We shouldn't... be like that...."

"Why did we need the information anyway? We don't have much use knowing about this...."

"Winter,"

Winter looked up and sighed, frowning.

"We need to know what happened with Adrian," Professor Acacia continued on. "You're the only one who knows."

"I don't want to talk about it," Winter muttered, looking away.

"Winter, please cooperate! We need to know!"

Winter didn't respond, sipping her tea and avoiding Acacia's gaze.

"WINTER!"

Winter snapped.

"If you want to know what happened so bad, then I'll fucking tell you!" Winter screamed. "I was overheating in that cave and then some assholes decided to ignore our warnings and step into the tunnel and trigger the first trap! I was about to lose consciousness, so Adrian had to pick me up and fucking walk through lava before we both died!"

Everyone went silent and Winter seemed inconsolable in her rage, shame and despair. The room was cold, freezing even.

Winter felt so ashamed that Adrian had to suffer so much simply to keep her safe. She was angry that her own weakness was the cause of everything, her own stubbornness being the reason Adrian couldn't simply escape on his own and save himself, forcing him to care for Winter as well.

Everything was her fault.

"Winter," Lunar murmured, reaching out for Winter.

Winter slapped Lunar's hand away, running out of the mansion without turning back.

"Good one," Solar snarked. "She wasn't responding because she knew that if she did, that would happen."

Blake sighed, holding his hand out for Whitley. Without noticing it herself, Whitley began to play with Blake's large hands under her nimble fingers nervously.

"She's just emotional," Acacia tried to brush her mistake off, disliking the fact that she was wrong.

"How could you say that?" Blake spoke up in a deadly tone. "How could you disregard someone's feelings like that? Winter might lose someone who was willing to walk through lava for her and yet you can brush it off like that?"

Acacia didn't say anything so that she wouldn't dig herself a deeper grave. She had been so embarrassed and simply wanted to cover up a mistake, but the wrong words slipped out.

"Let's just stop fighting," Red murmured. "We can't change what's happened, we just have to hope that Adrian and Winter will be okay, even though they may not choose to cooperate with us anymore."

"But we need them to-"

"Before anything else, Winter and Adrian are humans," Red glared. "We fucked up on our part, majorly, so if they don't trust us and prefer to work alone, we can't and should not try to deter them from that."

"Are you saying that because you're a Guardian too?" Green accused.

Red rolled his eyes in irritation. "This is about Winter and Adrian. I have no say in what they do, whether I am a Guardian or not, but I can deter them."

"Winter and Adrian probably aren't the only Guardians here," Green announced. "Think about the people constantly all over them and how Winter acts differently. There has to be something up with Red, Solar, Lunar, Lack-Two and Whi-Two."

"What are you going to do?" Blake challenged. "Strip us down and hunt for marks? Useless, we can't even trust each other anymore! Can't you guys realise that we must be in Winter's favour? We just fucking lost it, so fat chance of her staying here. With our luck, she's going to head back to Skaria now."

"We don't like being accused of being Guardians simply because we want to be friends with Winter," Solar glared pointedly. "If we accuse each other like this, trust is going to be broken, not like there's much around here anyway."

"If people want it to be known that they're Guardians, then let them, if they don't want people to know, then please leave them alone! It's for their safety too that names don't get to Team Shade!" Whitley pleaded. "Safety of the Guardians are the top priority, so even if it means not knowing the identity of the Guardians, it's for the better!"

"Whi-Two's right, curiosity killed the cat," Blake shrugged. "So even though most of you suspect Red, if he doesn't want to confirm it, then leave it."

"Whitley, Blake, go check on Adrian please," Red requested. "Things are about to get ugly here."

Blake nodded, but Whitley was more hesitant. The Guardians just wanted their Healer out of there to prevent her from getting too upset. Blake coaxed Whitley out of the room and into Adrian and Solar's room.

"Lunar, can you-"

"Lunar's staying here," Fall growled. "She can fight her own battles."

Lunar looked like a Deerling caught in headlights, unsure of what to do.

"She's got no part in this, does she?" Solar challenged. "Unless you're going to drag in that again, she's got no more reason to be here than Lack-Two and Whi-Two. Lunar, go find Winter and make sure she's safe and feeling okay. She might get hurt right now."

Lunar nodded timidly, grabbing Winter's Pokeballs and her own off the table and heading out the door as fast as she could.

"You guys don't understand what's at stake, do you?" Solar asked softly. "You don't understand that you're not just playing with the fate of the world, you've done that and you've all saved the world, but this time, you're handling the people who can save the world. You're handling the lives of the people who were born for this purpose. You need to respect them as humans before you view them as anything else. You're dealing with lives and now is not the time to satisfy your curiosity."

"We're not being asked to find 10 objects with the power to save the world, we're being asked to find 10 people. They're humans like you and like me. We can't force them to do anything they don't want to, they have personalities and can be really prickly, but if you guys can't be more sensitive with Winter and Adrian, then this isn't going to work out," Solar concluded, challenging anyone to say something.

"They're the ones not cooperating though! We're trying to help and-"

"They're humans and they can decide for themselves! They're trying to keep themselves safe! If their names are exposed to Team Shade, they're doomed!" Red argued. "Poni Island, Adrian's home has already been attacked! Winter has been captured once, who knows what Team Shade is going to do next! They're humans, they feel pain like we do! They're not objects that could fall into the wrong hands, they're humans! What can be done to make you understand that they aren't Gods?"

"We are here to help them and two people can't protect themselves from everything!"

"That's right," Solar murmured. "That's why there's 10 of them. 5 girls, 5 boys, chosen specifically by Arceus, the Pokemon God to maintain Pokemon and Human relationships, to protect the world."

"Then-"

"Forget the title Guardian," Red told them. "And look at Winter and Adrian as humans. That's all there is to it. Think about it. Solar, please go get Lunar and Winter."

"It's always Lunar isn't it! She's the problem! If Winter would lean on us a little more, then we would all be okay!"

Solar froze in his steps, red colouring his vision.

"Why can't Lunar just... stop already?"

"Summer, Fall," Red's tone dropped.

"None of these issues would be a thing if Lunar wasn't there, if Solar just steps back and Winter can lean on us more!"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Solar yelled. "STOP TALKING ABOUT LUNAR LIKE THAT! SHE'S DONE NOTHING WRONG!"

"She's done everything wrong! She's gone and-"

"Summer, Fall, shut up right now!" Red demanded before striding over to Solar. "Tsubasa, calm down and look at me, kay?" Red spoke quietly, hoping that no one could hear.

Solar slapped Red away, but before he could do anymore, Red placed both hands on the taller man's shoulders. "Tsubasa, shhh, it's gonna be okay. Kasumi and Tsukira are coming back right now. We're all here for you, but I need you to calm down, okay? Take deep breaths for me, Tsubasa, deep breaths."

Solar's vision blurred, going from red back to normal. He nodded at Red and took deep breaths, compelled to listen to his leader. His sun-like eyes flickered to meet Red's crimson eyes and the Dexholder smiled up at Solar.

"Better?" Red asked.

Solar took a deep breath and nodded. "Thank you, Red."

Red smiled, patting Solar's shoulder with a grin. "S'nothing. I'll deal with these people, but I want you out of here."

"But-"

"Solar, go. I can deal with them, but I don't want any of you here to be attacked. Go cool down, find Lunar or Winter or go off on your own or with Adrian. Just stay safe," Red murmured.

Solar sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Okay," he muttered, not looking back before leaving the room.

Red turned back around, glaring at everyone in the room. "I'm not going to try to fight against you guys anymore. If Winter and Adrian decide to take off, just know that I'll be following them because I believe in them and I'm willing to do anything to help the two of them. Think about what they've gone through and think about the way you're demeaning them."

"We'll finish this conversation later," Red muttered, turning his heel and going into Adrian's room.

~~~~~

They didn't end up finishing the conversation.

At least, not when Winter decided to come back after several days.

"Is he awake?" Winter asked meekly.

Lunar shook her head silently and Winter looked crushed, like she's completely defeated.

"I'll... go help..." Winter murmured.

"Winter," Lunar spoke up, looking Winter up and down. She wore the same jacket from Adrian, which no longer seemed to radiate the cold, but it was clean. Winter's hair was bouncing in waves, clean and healthy.

"Yeah?" Winter responded quietly.

"Are you okay?"

Winter smiled weakly and nodded, clutching Adrian's jacket closer.

Then, she turned and walked away.

* * * * *

(Note: This Author's note was written as I was writing this chapter....)

If you see Draconis People and not Draconid, it is not a typo, just a mistake on my part LMAO.

Describing Adrian's scent be like googling manly scents....

(After I finished)

..... Not much to actually write anymore so I just ended it. Winter's so fucking depressed right now.

Just a question, who ships Adrian x Winter?

I dunno, it didn't feel right to move on to the next plot point since it seems a little too fast so I just decided that the chapter should have been finished. This is relatively short to be honest, but I don't know, Winter was just so fucking depressed....

Idk what to say....

Adrian x Winter?