It wasn't until two days after that Winter returned with hints of pigments on her fingers. Silver took note of that, further leading him to suspect Winter to be Pink. That was until Summer and Fall mentioned it to the feisty Skarian Champion.

"Winter, why are your fingers so many different colours?"

"I was helping my sister out. What of it?" Winter rolled her eyes.

"Is she like an artist or something?" Fall asked.

"Why should I tell you?" Winter glared before promptly turning away and retreating back to her room in the lab.

Silver watched the exchange curiously, silently wondering about Pink's true identity.

Winter slouched behind the door, leaning against it as she pulled out the single pin that kept her hair up. Tugging against the knotty strands, she stood up straight, grabbed her bag and her Pokeballs before sneaking out of the premises with ease.

Yet again, Winter dreamt of nothing but nightmares the night before. Each and every dream stayed in her head very vividly, every single detail.

All she dreamt of was the torturous time she spent with Freeze Moon. Each of her screams of pain echoed in her ears as they experimented on her, knowing that she was a guardian. Sometimes, they'd torture the young champion for information that she had previously burnt into ashes.

Winter tugged at her hair, wandering through the forest aimlessly. Thinking about the scars that hadn't yet recovered made her shiver and cover her arms in shame. Remembering the details she desperately tried to forget only made her feel even more empty than usual.

All of Winter's excess energy went to blocking Hunter, Cygnus and Hisoka's words out, be it jeers from the former two or encouragement from the latter, Winter simply wished for silence. Winter just felt drained and devoid of any emotions.

Before Winter realised it was dusk. Sighing, she vaguely registered that it would take her a couple hours to walk back to the lab. Instead, she took out her Skysmitter to track Fall's location.

It was a modification that Winter managed to do with the help of her sister and her sister's connections. Professor Acacia would never agree to use the Skysmitters as tracking devices and Winter would flip if anyone in her contacts could keep tabs on her location at all times.

Winter saw that Fall headed toward Moloana Town, she assumed to eat with the Dexholders. Moloana Town was much closer than the lab, so Winter decided to take the ten minute walk. A normal traveller would've taken around thirty to forty minutes to walk there however, Winter was fast at walking, knew the entire region like the back of her hand and rarely any Pokemon would dare to attack her. Even if anything did attack, Winter could either befriend them or defeat them in a minute.

When Winter arrived at the Pokemon centre, which was conveniently located in the centre of town, she decided to check whether or not Fall had arrived. The Champion scowled when she realised it would take Fall at least another ten minutes to arrive, presumably due to him leading the Dexholders who were unfamiliar with the area.

Winter sighed, deciding to train. "Hurricane, Kairi, time to shine!" The Absol and Dragonair faced each other on their side of the battle field, their postures showing that they were ready.

"Alright, Hurricane, use Ice Beam!"

"Kairi, Thunderbolt!"

Both Pokemon were able to predict and dodge their friend's attack.

"Shadow ball Hurricane! Kairi, use Dragon Pulse!"

Everyone's eyes darted to different places, doing quick calculations. Without the attacks even being launched, Winter knew that they both missed again.

"Thunderbolt and Mud Slap!"

Electric bristled from Kairi the Dragonair and Hurricane the Absol's horn glowed a chocolate brown colour as they took a moment to decide how to attack.

"Woah! Look at this!"

Winter ignored the footsteps, watching her Pokemon coldly as they attacked. No one met their mark.

"Hurricane, Ice Beam!"

Kairi dodged effortlessly, completely focussed on the battle. Hurricane looked on silently as if she couldn't really find it in herself to care.

"Kairi, use Ice Beam!"

Hurricane leapt out of the way gracefully and frankly, the three were getting bored.

"Both of you, freeze the other." Winter then turned away, checking her skysmitter.

Both Pokemon froze the other's body to the ground, making sure to leave the head free. Both of them counted before simultaneously freezing each other's mouths shut.

"Oh my Arceus!"

"We gotta do something!"

"Winter! Look at your Pokemon!"

Winter checked her emails and messages, purposely taunting her fellow Dexholders.

Hurricane focused her Flamethrower around her entire body, quickly heating her body to a temperature that would melt the ice at a rapid pace. Kairi, on the other hand, focussed a Flamethrower at her mouth, melting her mouth before using her flexible neck to use Flamethrower to set herself free.

Both were out of their frozen state in around a minute.

Winter looked up and giggled at the slight anger in Hurricane's eyes as she tried to shake the water out of her pelt. Meanwhile, Kairi simply yawned and curled up in a ball.

"Kairi, help Hurricane out and then you can sleep," Winter promised.

Kairi yawned and raised her neck, using Flamethrower to dry her friend off before curling up into a little ball of blue scales again. Hurricen shook the rest of the heat off before returning her back to everyone. Smiling at the two, Winter returned them before looking at the Dexholders.

"What are you doing here?" Winter asked with a smirk.

"We were going to grab food until we saw you." Fall answered with a casual roll of his eyes.

"Great, well I'll just leave you alone." Winter quickly turned away.

"Winter! Let's eat together!" Summer laughed, clinging onto the smaller girl enthusiastically.

"Fuck off! I'm not interested, you dick!" Winter hissed.

"Chill!"

Winter glared. "I'll chill when pretty much all of you are burning in the distortion world."

"Winnie!"

Winter turned around, her eyes brightening and glowing at the sight of the taller woman. "Lulu!" She called out fondly, rushing into her open arms. "What brings you here?"

"Espeon sensed you nearby and I thought that I would come say hi and ask you something." The black haired woman smiled. "It's Solar,"

"He seems fine. I saw him yesterday." Winter frowned. "Wait, let's move." She cast a quick glance over her shoulder and glared at the three Skarians.

Winter teleported them into a nearby forest, sighing in relief. "I was going to hand something back to Prof A, but it can wait and some of them were too annoying to deal with, now, what's happened to him?"

"Nothing really, I'm more the problem because I began to avoid him...."

"Oh, Lulu...." Winter sighed in exasperation fondly. "All you have to do is talk to him, we both know that. He's waiting for you to go to him. Yes, Solar usually makes the first move but this situation requires you to move first or else...." Winter trailed off, looking away. "In any case, I'm sure that Solar will understand, especially with that situation last year."

"I know Wint, but..." Lunar sighed, looking away. "Words are easy to say, but putting them into action is never the same, now is it?"

Winter's eyes flickered, showing her hesitance. "Would you like me to talk to him? We can't keep Solar waiting."

Lunar bit her lip. "I need to ask him to stand in for me for something soon."

"Something?" Winter asked.

"Champions, Dexholders, Elite Fours and the Leader of Gyms are all required. In Hoenn, Fortree City." Lunar explained quickly. "No one would want me there and everyone likes Solar, so..." she glanced away, choosing to leave the words unsaid.

Winter growled in fury, her light eyes darkening in pure anger.

"Winnie, it's okay, just leave it." Lunar tried to smile, reaching out to calm Winter.

"How dare they?" Winter shouted in outrage. "Lunar, you need to tell me when this shit happens!"

Lunar smiled at Winter's genuine emotions. "I'll manage."

"I know that you will, but I didn't suffer through Solar's bullshit with you for almost a year only to see you get pushed down to your knees like this! I'm not letting you live like you have a gun held to your temple."

Lunar shook her head. "I'm the original, no one's going to be able to replace me."

"As much as I admire Solar for giving up his position to stay close to you, I am struggling so hard to keep up with the challenges whilst trying to locate everyone." Winter tugged at her messy pink locks in irritation.

Lunar narrowed her eyes. "Lift your top up."

Winter immediately grew defensive. "Why?"

"Winter." Lunar scolded.

Winter's fingers played with the hem of her shirt before she lifted it up.

~~~~~

Winter sighed, her hair travelling down her back in knots and frizz. Somehow, it didn't make her look bad at all, she looked as beautiful as usual. She was chewing on her light, pink lips and her moss green eyes were hooded in exhaustion.

"Finally finished with that lying bitch?" Fall sneered.

Winter's eyes flashed with ferocity. "What did you say?"

Fall was taken aback before scoffing, pretending that he didn't hear anything.

"Listen to me, you little dick." Winter spat. "Don't you dare insult her. Don't you dare judge her when you don't even know her or her story."

"Everyone knows, Winter. I don't know what you're trying to defend. You're clinging onto old feelings." Fall scoffed.

"You actually believe that I'd put my pride and reputation on the line for a lying bitch?" Winter laughed cruelly. "You must be joking."

None of the other Dexholders dared to interrupt.

Winter turned her back on Fall, looking at Professor Acacia. "Here." Winter tossed - almost violently a folio of papers at Acacia. "I finished all the paperwork and shit for the next month, don't bother me."

Winter whirled around.

"Winter," Acacia chided.

Winter sighed in exasperation. "What the fuck do you want?" Winter hissed in a foreign language.

"Winter, I think you should--"

Winter's head whipped around, completely surprised at the male's voice. She made eye contact with--

The anger on her face evaporated, replaced by genuine confusion. She blinked, childlike innocence filling her face. Her eyebrows furrowed and she gnawed on her lips as if she was trying to recall something. She stayed like that for a moment before deciding something.

"Whi, let's go." She muttered.

Whi-Two lit up excitedly, jumping up and grabbing her bag. She was all too excited to ditch everyone in favour of staying with Winter.

"Whi-Two--"

Whi-Two ignored them all, nudging Winter with a kind smile on her lips. "I was wondering if you were going to acknowledge me, Treas! I've been waiting to see you or nee-chan for how many years? Seven years?" Whi-Two exaggerated.

White almost dropped her things in shock. Never once did Whi-Two ever show this sort of behaviour around them, but now, with Winter, a grumpy Winter, Whi-Two seemed completely relaxed and natural. And what was that that Winter called her--

"..."

"Wint, you can't ignore me, you know! You acknowledged me first." Whi-Two whined.

"Akemi, this is a lost language." Winter sighed.

"Yeah, and?"

Winter sighed in exasperation, shaking her head playfully. Whi-Two knew exactly what it meant and was simply teasing. "How many on your team?"

Whi-Two's face fell.

"Akemi, what happened to Emuritto?" Winter demanded.

"I have someone...." Whi-Two admitted. "But Emuritto said that she had to go for a meeting or whatever."

Unable to shake the feeling, Winter said something. "Hikari, Hibiki, Shizumi, Tsubasa--"

"WINTER!" Whi-Two shouted loudly. "What are you doing saying those...?"

"I'm going to find out who's here." Winter grumbled. "Yuuka, Yuuki, Kazuki."

He gasped.

Winter threw her hands up in defeat. "Of course he would be my partner."

"Kasumi, it's not that bad." Whi-Two giggled. "Kazuki, this is your Guardian name. You respond to it purely on instinct. Either way, Kasumi and I need to go. Call me when you're alone and we'll try to explain some things."

With that, Whi-Two dragged Winter out of the coffee shop.