Whiteout (Pokemon OC Insert)

[blue butterfly of death]

Disclaimer: This is the general disclaimer for the entire fic! I do not own any of the intellectual property depicted in this fanwork. Everything depicted is non-canon and entirely fan made.

Short A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfic I'm deciding to really polish and post for all of you to read, so if you have any criticism, or particularly strong emotions, please do let me know!! (whether good or bad) Please enjoy!! This is also the first post I've ever made on Questionable Questing, so please please please don't be afraid to let me know any of your thoughts!!!

Prologue: White

---

Empty.

That was the only word running through White's mind as he stared into the large yellow eyes that passed over him without even a second thought.

He was nothing to it.

Something insignificant.

The creature lumbered through the cavern like some horrible amalgamation of jagged spikes, frozen flesh, and shattered ice. Nothing about it looked right. One wing hung differently from the other. Its body seemed unfinished, its silhouette crooked and uneven in a way that made White's skin crawl.

Every time the beast exhaled, mist poured from between its jaws and spread across the cavern floor, leaving behind the same strange ice that coated nearly every surface around them, ice that refused to melt no matter how long they had held a flame to it earlier.

Each heavy step echoed through the cave.

Each stretch of its asymmetrical wings sent frost cascading from its body.

There was something monstrous about even the smallest movement.

White couldn't look away.

Those pale yellow eyes were empty.

Not angry.

Not hungry.

Not curious.

Just... empty.

Like there was nothing inside them at all.

No purpose. No excitement. No fear. Nothing that White understood as alive.

Even standing this close to it felt wrong. His limbs had grown strangely heavy, as though the cold itself were pressing down on him, urging him to sit, to close his eyes, to stop moving altogether.

"Kyurem."

His older brother barely breathed the name.

White turned toward him.

Bryce was terrified.

That scared White more than the creature did.

His brother was never scared.

Bryce climbed mountains during blizzards. He fought wild Pokémon twice his size. He laughed whenever their mother warned him that one day his recklessness would finally catch up to him.

But now his face had gone pale.

White shifted anxiously behind the outcropping of ice they had hidden behind.

Poro whimpered against his chest.

The little Cubchoo had been White's best friend ever since they met while exploring the outskirts of Icirrus City with Bryce. Normally, Poro loved the cold. He would throw himself face-first into fresh snow and complain whenever White tried bringing him inside.

Now he was trembling.

White wrapped both arms around him and tried to stop his own hands from shaking.

"What do we do, Big Bro?" he whispered.

Bryce looked at him.

For half a second, White expected the same grin he always wore when something went wrong. The one that meant Bryce had a plan.

It never came.

"J-Just stay here, okay, buddy?"

"Bryce..."

"I'll get us outta here."

Bryce stepped out from behind the ice.

Two Poké Balls were already in his hands.

White's stomach dropped.

"Wait..."

"Cryogonal! Vanillish!"

The cavern flashed white as both Pokémon emerged.

Kyurem stopped walking.

For the first time since entering the cavern, the creature turned its head toward them.

White suddenly wished it had kept ignoring them.

Kyurem's head tilted. For a moment, nothing happened.

"Cryogonal, Flash Cannon! Vanillish, Ice Beam!"

Both Pokémon attacked at once. A brilliant silver beam tore across the cavern, followed closely by a streak of freezing blue light. The attacks struck Kyurem directly in the chest, disappearing beneath an explosion of frost and shattered ice.

White flinched at the noise, but Bryce didn't move. His eyes remained fixed on the cloud.

"Did we get it?" White whispered.

Bryce said nothing.

The mist slowly cleared.

Kyurem stood exactly where it had before.

White's stomach twisted. There wasn't even a mark on it. The creature stared at the two Pokémon standing before it, almost as if it were trying to understand what they had done.

Then its jaws opened.

"Move!"

Bryce threw himself sideways as a blast of pale blue energy ripped through the cavern. White barely had time to cover Poro before the entire cave shook.

The beam struck where Bryce had been standing only a moment earlier. Thick pillars of jagged ice exploded from the stone floor, tearing chunks from the cavern walls as they rose. Cryogonal spun desperately through the air and narrowly avoided one of the spikes, while Vanillish was caught by the force of the attack and thrown backward.

"Vanillish!"

It slammed into the cavern wall with a sickening crack before dropping to the ground.

White's breath caught.

Poro squirmed in his arms, trying to turn toward the fallen Pokémon.

"Stay here," White whispered, tightening his grip.

Poro shook its head violently.

Another roar shook the cavern.

White looked back. Kyurem had spread its wings, and the temperature plummeted so quickly that his breath came out in thick white clouds. Frost crawled over the sleeves of his jacket, spreading across the fabric faster than he could brush it away.

Bryce pushed himself back to his feet.

"Cryogonal, get Vanillish!"

Cryogonal darted toward its fallen teammate.

Kyurem moved.

White had expected something that large to be slow. It wasn't.

One moment it stood several yards away. The next, one of its claws tore through the space Cryogonal had occupied only an instant before. Cryogonal twisted upward and barely escaped, but the edge of Kyurem's wing clipped its body and sent it spinning helplessly through the air.

"Cryogonal!"

Bryce reached for another Poké Ball, but Kyurem roared again.

The sound struck White like a physical force. He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears, but it did nothing. The roar seemed to shake inside his skull.

Poro cried out against his chest.

When White opened his eyes again, Kyurem was staring directly at him.

Everything seemed to stop.

White forgot about Bryce. Forgot about Cryogonal. Forgot about Vanillish lying against the wall.

Those pale yellow eyes were fixed entirely on him.

"White!"

Bryce's voice sounded distant.

Kyurem took a step forward.

White couldn't move.

It wasn't only fear. Something about those eyes held him there. That emptiness, that horrible endless nothing, felt almost familiar in a way White couldn't understand.

For just a moment, he had the strange feeling that Kyurem wasn't looking at him.

It was looking through him.

"White, run!"

Bryce's scream finally broke whatever held him.

White stumbled backward, nearly dropping Poro in the process. Kyurem inhaled, and every loose shard of frost scattered across the ground began to tremble before slowly lifting into the air.

"Get down!"

Bryce crashed into White from the side.

The world turned white.

The blast hit the cavern like an avalanche. White felt himself leave the ground before he understood what had happened. Bryce's arm slipped from around him, and the force sent White skidding across the ice with Poro clutched tightly against his chest. His shoulder struck first, then the side of his head, leaving nothing but a high ringing in his ears for several seconds.

"Poro..." White pushed himself onto his elbows, blinking through the haze. His vision swam before slowly settling. Poro whimpered in his arms, shaken but conscious.

A voice shouted from somewhere beyond the drifting frost.

"White!"

White's head snapped up. "Big Bro!"

As the mist cleared, he finally saw what had happened. A massive wall of jagged ice had erupted through the center of the cavern, completely separating them. Bryce stood on the other side, close enough that White could see the panic on his face through the pale blue barrier.

White scrambled upright and ran toward him. "Big Bro!"

"I'm here!"

White slammed both hands against the ice. It was strangely clear, almost like glass, and for one hopeful moment he expected Bryce to simply break through.

Bryce released Cryogonal immediately. "Flash Cannon!"

A silver beam struck the barrier and flooded the cavern with light. White shielded his face from the blast. When he looked again, the ice was untouched.

Bryce stared at it.

"Again!"

Cryogonal fired a second time. The attack exploded against the wall with enough force to shake loose frost from the ceiling, but when the light faded there was not so much as a scratch.

Bryce's breathing grew heavier. He grabbed another Poké Ball.

"Beartic!"

The large Ice-type appeared beside him with a roar.

"Brick Break! As hard as you can!"

Beartic drove its arm into the barrier.

The impact thundered through the cavern.

Nothing happened.

Not a crack.

Not a chip.

Nothing.

Beartic struck again, then a third time. Each blow echoed through the chamber, but the strange ice remained perfectly smooth.

White's stomach began to twist.

"Why isn't it breaking?"

Bryce didn't answer. He stepped closer and pressed a hand against the barrier as if he might somehow find a weakness the Pokémon had missed.

"Big Bro?"

Bryce looked up at him.

For the first time, White saw that he had no idea what to do.

A low growl rolled through the cavern.

Bryce's head snapped toward the sound.

White slowly looked over his shoulder.

Kyurem was approaching.

The dragon moved through the drifting frost without hurry, each heavy step carrying it closer. Its pale yellow eyes remained fixed on White.

Poro whimpered against his chest.

"Big Bro..."

Bryce looked between White and Kyurem. His eyes darted toward the barrier, then toward the passage stretching behind him.

White pressed himself closer to the ice.

"What do we do?"

Bryce said nothing.

"Big Bro?"

Kyurem took another step.

Bryce suddenly recalled Cryogonal and Beartic.

White blinked.

"What are you doing?"

Bryce shoved the Poké Balls onto his belt and backed away from the barrier.

White's eyes widened.

"Big Bro?"

Bryce looked at him one last time.

There was something in his face White had never seen before. Fear, yes, but something else too. Something desperate.

Then Bryce turned.

And ran.

White stared after him.

For a moment, his mind simply refused to understand what he was seeing.

"Big Bro?"

Bryce disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.

White stepped closer to the barrier.

"Wait."

No answer.

"Big Bro!"

Nothing.

Behind him, Kyurem continued forward.

White struck the ice with his palm. "Come back!"

His voice echoed through the cavern and vanished into the passage Bryce had fled through.

Poro began trembling.

White looked back toward Kyurem, then again toward the empty tunnel.

"He's coming back," White whispered.

The words sounded weak even to him.

"He has to."

Kyurem drew closer.

White hit the barrier again, harder this time.

"BIG BRO!"

Still nothing.

The last image White had of him burned itself into his mind.

Bryce looking at him.

Bryce seeing Kyurem.

Bryce turning away.

Bryce running.

White kept staring at the tunnel long after Bryce disappeared. For a few seconds, he could still hear his footsteps echoing somewhere beyond the darkness, but even those eventually faded.

"Big Bro?"

Nothing answered.

White struck the barrier again, but there was no strength behind it this time. His palm slid slowly down the frozen surface. Behind him, Kyurem stopped moving. Poro whimpered and pressed against White's leg, but White barely noticed. The fear that had been tearing through his chest only moments ago was beginning to disappear, not because he felt safe, but because he suddenly felt nothing at all.

The cavern seemed quieter than before. The pounding of his heart dulled, and even Kyurem's presence, which had terrified him only moments earlier, felt strangely distant. White looked down at his hands and realized they had stopped shaking. He should have been crying. He should have been screaming for Bryce to come back. He should have grabbed Poro and tried to run.

Instead, he simply stood there.

Empty.

The word returned to him. He had seen it in Kyurem's eyes before, that vast absence behind them, something cold and hollow where there should have been fear, anger, or life.

Now White understood it.

His brother was gone. The person who was always supposed to know what to do had looked at him and ran. Something inside White seemed to disappear with him.

Poro tugged desperately at his pants, finally drawing White's attention downward.

"Why did he leave?"

Poro whined softly.

White swallowed, but the ache in his throat never became tears. "He said he'd get us out."

Kyurem took another step, and White slowly raised his head. Those pale yellow eyes met his again, but this time he did not look away. The creature stared at him, and for one strange moment White no longer felt like something insignificant beneath its gaze.

He felt understood.

That frightened him more than anything.

A thin layer of frost spread beneath Kyurem's feet and began crawling across the cavern floor. White watched it come toward him. He knew he should move. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he understood that he should pick up Poro and run, but his legs refused to listen.

The frost reached his boots.

Cold seeped through the leather.

Poro cried out and leapt into White's arms. White caught him automatically, pulling the Cubchoo tightly against his chest as ice began climbing over his shoes.

"Poro..."

The Cubchoo buried its face beneath White's chin.

At first, the cold burned. White gasped and tightened his grip on Poro as a sharp pain spread through his feet and legs, but it lasted only a moment. Then the pain vanished with the feeling in his legs, and the strange ice continued upward.

White looked toward the tunnel one last time.

No one came.

"He really left."

The words came out quieter than he expected.

The ice reached his waist. Poro trembled violently against him, and White slowly stroked the fur between his ears with fingers he could barely feel.

"It's okay," White whispered. "I've got you."

The words felt strange coming from him. Bryce had said things like that before. White wondered if they had ever meant anything.

Kyurem lowered its head as the ice continued across White's chest and shoulders, slowly spreading over Poro as well. White expected himself to panic again, but the colder he became, the farther everything seemed to drift away.

His fear faded first.

Then his anger.

Then the confusion.

Even the image of Bryce running began to blur at the edges.

White's eyelids grew heavy. For the first time since entering the cavern, everything felt peaceful. There was no fear anymore. No pain. No questions.

Nothing.

White looked into Kyurem's pale yellow eyes.

Empty.

Maybe being empty wasn't so bad.

The ice reached his neck and began creeping across his jaw. Poro gave one last quiet whine, and White closed his eyes, resting his cheek against his partner's head.

"I'm tired."

The frost covered his lips, then his eyelashes. The last thing White felt was Poro's heartbeat pressed against his chest.

Then even that disappeared.

The ice sealed over them both, and the cavern became still.

---

Candice POV

The flame had been burning for almost three minutes.

Candice crouched beside the wall of pale blue ice, watching the fire wash across its surface without leaving so much as a bead of water behind. Her expression, which had begun the morning somewhere between curiosity and excitement, had long since settled into a frown.

"That should be impossible."

Behind her, Professor Rowan adjusted his glasses. "You have said that four times now."

"Because it should still be impossible."

Candice stood and brushed the frost from her knees before glancing toward Cynthia's Garchomp. "Enough."

Garchomp let the Flamethrower die in its jaws, and the flames washing across the wall disappeared. Even sustained heat from a Pokémon as powerful as Cynthia's ace had accomplished nothing. The ice remained exactly as it had been when they entered the chamber.

No melting.

No cracking.

Not even condensation.

Cynthia stepped closer, careful not to touch the frozen surface. "And you're certain this isn't something Ice Pokémon normally produce?"

Candice gave her a look. "Cynthia, I run an Ice-type Gym."

"That wasn't an answer."

"It was absolutely an answer."

A faint smile crossed Cynthia's face, but Rowan remained focused on the ice. He scraped a metal instrument gently across the surface, collecting what little frost came loose before examining it beneath the beam of his flashlight.

"Ordinary Never-Melt Ice is known for resisting heat," Rowan said, "but even that has measurable properties. This is different."

Candice folded her arms. "Different how?"

"That is what we came here to determine."

"Glad we cleared that up."

Cynthia chuckled quietly.

Candice looked back toward the frozen wall. The reports had sounded ridiculous when they first reached Snowpoint. Hunters and Rangers near Lacunosa had found sections of ice deep within the Giant Chasm that remained frozen regardless of season or temperature. Samples removed from the area either refused to melt or deteriorated into ordinary frost before they could be properly transported.

That alone had been enough to interest Rowan.

It had been more than enough to interest Candice.

A form of ice that did not melt was the kind of thing an Ice specialist had difficulty ignoring.

What she had not expected was how uncomfortable it would make her.

"Sneasel."

The Pokémon at her side immediately looked up.

"You feel it too, don't you?"

Sneasel's ears flattened.

Candice frowned.

That had been happening since they entered the deeper sections of the Chasm. Abomasnow had become increasingly quiet, and even Sneasel, who normally treated dangerous places as invitations, had stopped wandering farther than a few steps from her.

Cynthia noticed. "Your Pokémon have been uneasy since we came underground."

"They're Ice-types. The temperature shouldn't bother them."

"Perhaps it isn't the temperature."

Candice glanced at her.

Cynthia was staring farther into the cavern.

The Giant Chasm itself was already the subject of enough stories to fill a library. Some claimed something had fallen from the sky here long ago, leaving the enormous crater behind. Others told of a monster that emerged at night and carried away people and Pokémon. Whatever truth remained beneath those stories, the place had earned its reputation. The deeper they traveled, the fewer signs of life they encountered.

Rowan closed his sample container. "We should continue only as far as necessary. We have enough material for preliminary study."

Candice blinked. "You dragged me across two regions and now you want to turn around?"

"I did not drag you anywhere."

"You sent one letter."

"And you arrived three days early."

"That's basically dragging."

Cynthia raised a hand before Rowan could answer. "Candice."

Sneasel had moved.

The Pokémon stood several yards ahead of them, staring into a narrow passage partially hidden behind a formation of blue ice.

"Sneasel?"

It didn't look back.

Instead, it stepped into the passage.

Candice's expression changed.

"Sneasel, wait."

The Pokémon disappeared around the corner.

Candice followed immediately, with Cynthia and Rowan close behind.

The passage narrowed as they moved deeper. Strange ice covered more and more of the stone until eventually there was almost no natural rock visible at all. Candice ran her fingers close to the surface without touching it. Even through her glove, she could feel cold radiating from it.

Then she heard Sneasel cry out.

Candice broke into a run.

"Sneasel!"

She rounded the corner and nearly collided with the Pokémon.

The passage had opened into a much larger chamber.

Candice stopped.

Cynthia came to a halt beside her.

Professor Rowan said nothing.

The entire chamber was frozen.

Massive sheets of pale ice climbed the walls, while crooked pillars rose from the cavern floor like the remains of some frozen forest. Everything reflected the faint blue light coming from somewhere beneath the ice itself.

But none of them were looking at the cavern.

Sneasel stood in front of a large formation at its center.

Something was inside it.

Candice approached slowly.

"What is that?"

Cynthia's voice was quieter than usual. "I don't know."

As Candice drew closer, the shape became clearer.

First she saw the dark fabric.

Then a hand.

Candice stopped breathing.

"Professor."

Rowan was already moving.

They approached from opposite sides of the formation. The ice here was clearer than what they had encountered elsewhere, almost perfectly transparent beneath several layers of frost.

Candice brushed some of it away.

A face appeared beneath her glove.

She jerked backward.

"Oh my God."

There was a boy inside the ice.

He was young. Ten, perhaps eleven at most. His body had curled around something held tightly against his chest, as though his last instinct before freezing had been to protect it.

Candice moved closer again.

"A Pokémon."

Cynthia crouched beside her. "Cubchoo."

The little Pokémon was trapped within the boy's arms, its face buried against his chest.

Neither moved.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Rowan finally stepped forward and placed one hand near the surface without touching it.

"How long?"

Candice looked at him.

He shook his head. "There is no way to know."

Her gaze returned to the boy.

She had seen frozen Pokémon before. Snowpoint winters could be cruel, and inexperienced trainers occasionally underestimated what severe exposure could do.

This was nothing like that.

The boy did not look dead.

That somehow made it worse.

His skin was pale, almost unnaturally drained of color, but his fingers had not blackened. There was no visible damage from frostbite, and there was something strangely peaceful about his expression.

Candice swallowed.

"Can we get him out?"

Rowan studied the surrounding ice. "Not by force."

"Then we melt it."

"We have already established that heat has little effect."

"Then we use more."

"Candice."

"There's a kid in there."

"I am aware."

Her jaw tightened.

Cynthia placed a hand lightly on her shoulder. "He's right. If that ice is the only thing keeping the structure stable, breaking it carelessly could hurt him."

Candice stared at her. "He might already be dead."

Cynthia didn't answer.

Sneasel suddenly scratched at the ice.

"Sneasel, stop."

The Pokémon ignored her.

It scratched again, then pressed one ear against the frozen surface.

Candice frowned.

"What?"

Sneasel looked at her.

Then back at the boy.

Rowan stepped closer. "Move aside."

Candice watched as he removed another instrument from his pack and pressed it carefully against the ice near the boy's chest.

Nothing happened at first.

Then Rowan's expression changed.

Cynthia noticed immediately. "Professor?"

Rowan adjusted the instrument.

He waited.

Candice's patience lasted three seconds.

"What is it?"

"Quiet."

She glared at him but obeyed.

The chamber fell silent.

Candice could hear Abomasnow breathing behind them. Somewhere farther back, a piece of frost fell from the ceiling and shattered against the ground.

Then the device moved.

Only slightly.

Rowan stared at it.

Candice felt her stomach tighten.

"What?"

He repositioned it.

Again.

A tiny movement.

Regular.

Slow.

But unmistakable.

Rowan looked through the ice at the boy.

"He has a pulse."

Candice stared at him.

"What?"

"A very weak one."

"That's not possible."

"No," Rowan said quietly. "It isn't."

Candice stepped closer to the frozen boy.

For the first time since entering the Giant Chasm, she forgot entirely about the ice they had come to study.

The boy's eyes remained closed. The Cubchoo stayed motionless against his chest. Neither showed any outward sign that life remained inside them.

But somewhere beneath that impossible ice, a heart was still beating.

Candice placed her palm gently against the frozen surface.

"How long have you been in there?"

The boy gave no answer.

The ice remained perfectly still.

Candice kept her hand against the ice for another few seconds before finally pulling it away.

"He has a pulse," she repeated quietly, almost as if saying it again would make the fact easier to understand.

Professor Rowan was already unpacking more equipment. "A pulse does not mean he is stable."

Cynthia stepped closer to the frozen block, her attention fixed on the boy's face. "There's something else."

Candice followed her gaze.

At first, she thought it was just the blue light reflecting through the ice. Then she realized Cynthia was right.

The boy's hair was completely white.

Not pale blond. Not silver.

White.

His eyelashes were the same, and the skin around his eyes seemed almost unnaturally drained of color. Even beneath the cold tint of the ice, there was something strange about him, as if every trace of pigment had been pulled from his body.

Candice frowned. "Was he like that before?"

"There is no way for us to know," Rowan said.

Cynthia leaned closer. "Look at his eyes."

Candice blinked. "His eyes are closed."

"Not completely."

A narrow gap showed beneath one eyelid.

Candice lowered herself until she could see through the ice.

For a second, she assumed she was looking at frost.

Then she realized she was looking at his iris.

White.

No blue.

No gray.

No visible color at all.

Candice straightened slowly.

"That's not normal."

Rowan did not answer. He was studying the ice around the boy's chest now, carefully tracing the shape of the frozen layers without touching them directly.

Candice crossed her arms. "You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"The thing where you stop talking because whatever you're thinking is worse than what you want to say."

Rowan sighed. "The ice around him is not uniform."

Cynthia looked over. "Meaning?"

"It is thicker around the exterior, but much thinner immediately surrounding the boy and the Cubchoo."

Candice frowned. "Like an air pocket?"

"Not exactly. More like a shell."

Rowan moved the device lower. "The material surrounding their bodies appears to have formed differently than the ice around it. If I had to guess, I would say the outer layer is structural, while the inner layer is preserving them."

Candice stared at him. "Preserving."

"That is the closest word I have."

Her gaze returned to the boy.

The word felt wrong.

People preserved fossils. Ancient artifacts. Things that were already dead.

Not children.

"So if we break the outside?"

"We may damage whatever is keeping them alive."

"And if we leave them in there?"

Rowan looked at her.

Candice already knew the answer.

"We don't know."

Cynthia crouched near Sneasel, who had not taken its eyes off the frozen boy since they entered the chamber. "Then we need to understand how the ice reacts before we touch the main formation."

Rowan nodded. "Exactly."

Candice looked around the chamber. "There's plenty of it."

They spent the next hour testing everything they could.

Heat accomplished almost nothing.

Abomasnow struck a nearby formation with Wood Hammer and barely left a mark. Sneasel's claws could scrape frost from the surface, but the deeper ice refused to chip. Cynthia tried directing her Garchomp to fire controlled Dragon-type attacks at one of the smaller deposits, only to discover that the damaged section seemed to freeze over again within minutes.

That was the part Candice liked least.

The ice healed.

Not quickly.

Not obviously.

But it healed.

She stood over one of the test marks and watched a thin line of frost slowly creep across it until the crack disappeared.

"That is disgusting."

Cynthia glanced toward her. "Interesting choice of word."

"It's ice. It shouldn't heal."

"No," Rowan said. "It should not."

Candice looked back toward the boy.

He had not moved.

Neither had Cubchoo.

She hated how easy it was to forget they were alive.

"How long can someone survive like that?"

Rowan did not look up from his notes. "Under ordinary circumstances?"

"Yes."

"They cannot."

Candice's jaw tightened.

Cynthia noticed. "Then ordinary circumstances are clearly not relevant."

"That's not exactly comforting."

"It was not meant to be."

Rowan finally closed his notebook. "We cannot safely break the main structure here."

Candice turned toward him. "So what are you suggesting?"

"We stabilize it and transport the entire formation."

She stared at him.

"The whole thing?"

"If possible."

Candice looked at the enormous block of ice.

"You want to carry that out of the Giant Chasm."

"With Pokémon assistance."

"That could take hours."

"Yes."

"And if whatever did this comes back?"

Silence.

That was the question none of them had said aloud since entering the chamber.

Candice glanced toward the darkness beyond the frozen pillars.

The stories of the Giant Chasm suddenly seemed much less ridiculous.

Cynthia stood.

"Then we do it quickly."

Rowan nodded. "Candice, your Pokémon are the best suited for moving something this heavy without exposing it to unnecessary heat."

Candice looked at Abomasnow.

The Pokémon gave a low grunt.

"Yeah, I know."

She turned toward the ice again.

The boy's white face remained motionless beneath the frozen surface.

Candice walked closer and crouched.

"You'd better appreciate this someday."

No response.

"Because this is going to be a nightmare."

Sneasel chirped beside her.

Candice glanced down. "You too?"

Sneasel placed one claw against the ice.

The Cubchoo inside twitched.

Candice froze.

"Sneasel."

The Pokémon stepped back.

Candice leaned closer.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then Cubchoo's paw moved again.

Barely.

But it moved.

"Professor."

Rowan was beside her almost immediately.

"What?"

"The Cubchoo."

They watched.

Another twitch.

Then the boy's fingers tightened slightly in its fur.

Candice's breath caught.

Rowan stared through the ice.

"They are responding."

"To what?"

No one answered.

Sneasel stepped closer again.

The frost inside the formation shifted.

Candice noticed it first.

A thin layer of white spread outward from the boy's hand.

Not toward him.

Away from him.

Across the ice.

Cynthia's expression changed.

"Candice."

"I see it."

The white frost continued outward until it reached Sneasel's claw on the other side.

Sneasel did not move.

The instant the two touched through the ice, the entire chamber gave a low, deep groan.

Candice stood.

"That can't be good."

A crack appeared near the bottom of the formation.

Then another.

Rowan stepped back. "Everyone away from it."

Candice recalled Abomasnow immediately and grabbed Sneasel by the shoulder.

The cracks spread.

Not violently.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

Almost as though the ice had finally decided to let go.

A section near the boy's face fractured and fell away.

Cold air poured from the opening.

Candice stared.

The ice was breaking from the inside.

Rowan moved toward it.

"Wait."

Candice caught his arm.

Another piece fell.

Then another.

The frozen shell around the boy and his Cubchoo began to separate in thick layers, each one cracking loose before sliding onto the cavern floor.

Cynthia watched the pattern carefully.

"It isn't collapsing."

Rowan nodded. "No."

Candice looked at the boy.

"It's opening."

Within minutes, most of the outer shell had fallen away.

The inner layer remained.

Thin.

Clear.

Almost like a second skin of ice.

Candice could see the boy perfectly now.

White hair.

White lashes.

White eyes barely visible beneath half-closed lids.

No color anywhere.

He looked less like someone who had frozen to death and more like someone carved from snow.

Candice reached toward him, then stopped before touching the remaining ice.

"Can we remove this part?"

Rowan examined it.

"I don't know."

The boy's fingers moved again.

This time, all three of them saw it.

The thin layer covering his hand cracked.

Candice's eyes widened.

The ice spread apart over his fingers.

Then his wrist.

Then his arm.

The Cubchoo's frozen fur began emerging beside him.

Slowly, the inner shell released them.

The boy's body tipped forward.

Candice lunged and caught him before he hit the ground.

The cold went straight through her gloves.

She nearly dropped him.

"Arceus."

Cynthia moved in immediately and took some of his weight.

"He's freezing."

"No kidding."

The Cubchoo slipped free next.

Sneasel caught the Cubchoo awkwardly against its chest.

Rowan dropped to his knees beside the boy and checked his pulse.

Candice watched his expression.

"Well?"

"It's stronger."

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

The boy did not wake.

His head rested limply against Candice's shoulder, white hair falling across his face. Up close, the absence of color was even more obvious.

Candice brushed the hair away from his eyes.

Nothing.

No reaction.

"Can he hear us?"

"Possibly."

She looked down at him.

"Hey."

The boy remained still.

Candice adjusted her grip and pulled him closer, trying to shield him from the cavern air even though she knew the cold itself clearly wasn't the problem.

"You don't have to wake up yet."

Her voice softened.

"But you're coming with us."

For the first time since they found him, the ice behind them began to melt.

---

Six days later...

The boy had been asleep for six days.

Candice knew because she had counted every one of them.

She sat beside his hospital bed with one leg crossed over the other, absently turning a paper cup of coffee between her hands. It had gone cold nearly an hour ago, but she had stopped noticing. The room was quiet except for the steady beeping of the monitor beside the bed and the occasional footsteps passing through the hallway outside.

He looked different without the ice around him.

Someone had changed him out of the clothes he had been found in and into a hospital gown, and the frost that had clung stubbornly to his hair was finally gone. That only made the extent of his condition more obvious. His hair was completely white from root to tip. His eyebrows and eyelashes had lost their color as well, and his skin seemed strangely washed out beneath the hospital lights.

The doctors had assured Candice that he was not albino. Whatever had stripped the color from him appeared to have been acquired rather than something he had been born with. His body still possessed the structures that should have produced pigment. They simply no longer did.

The strange Cubchoo they had found with him was curled beneath a blanket in a smaller bed near the wall. It had recovered more quickly than the boy, though it refused to leave the room for more than a few minutes at a time. The nurses had tried twice. Both attempts had ended with the Pokémon becoming so distressed that they eventually gave up and allowed it to stay.

Candice understood.

The Cubchoo had been clutched against the boy's chest when they found them. Whatever had happened in the Giant Chasm, they had gone through it together.

A knock sounded against the open door.

Candice looked over as Professor Rowan entered with a folder tucked beneath one arm. Cynthia followed a few steps behind him carrying two fresh cups of coffee.

Candice immediately raised the one in her hand. "Please tell me one of those is mine."

Cynthia handed her a cup. "I assumed that one had been cold for at least an hour."

Candice looked down at it. "Maybe."

"You also forgot lunch."

"I didn't forget."

"When did you eat?"

Candice paused before taking a sip of the fresh coffee. "That's not important."

Rowan ignored them both and stopped near the foot of the boy's bed. Candice watched him open the folder and scan the first page before her patience got the better of her.

"Anything?"

Rowan remained quiet.

Candice sighed. "That means no."

"It means we have learned several things," Rowan replied.

"Do any of those things include who he is?"

"No."

Candice's expression fell.

Rowan turned a page. "The Unovan authorities have compared his description with every active missing child report they could reasonably access. Nothing matches closely enough to establish an identity. The changes to his appearance and the fact that we have no reliable idea when he disappeared make the comparison considerably more difficult."

"What about older reports?"

"They are searching those as well."

Candice frowned. "How old?"

"That is part of the problem."

Cynthia moved closer. "You still can't determine how long he was frozen."

"No."

Candice looked toward the sleeping boy. "Not even approximately?"

"We can establish that it was longer than a few days. Beyond that, the evidence becomes contradictory."

Rowan removed one of the reports from the folder and placed it on the small table beside the bed. "Normally, we would estimate the passage of time using biological deterioration, changes to clothing, environmental exposure, and the condition of the surrounding material. Almost none of those methods are useful here."

"Because the ice preserved everything," Cynthia said.

"Precisely. His body provides almost no reliable indication of elapsed time. The Cubchoo is much the same. Their clothing has undergone some deterioration, but even that is inconsistent. Parts appear almost untouched while others suggest prolonged exposure."

Candice leaned forward. "How prolonged?"

Rowan looked at her. "I don't know."

"Months?"

"Possible."

"A year?"

"Also possible."

Candice stared at him.

"Longer?"

Rowan closed the folder slightly. "I cannot rule it out."

The answer settled heavily over the room.

Candice looked again at the boy.

She tried to imagine him trapped inside the Giant Chasm for a year and couldn't. Two years sounded even more absurd. Five was impossible.

Then again, six days earlier she would have called finding a living child inside a solid block of unmeltable ice impossible too.

Cynthia broke the silence. "If he disappeared that long ago, searching only current records may be why there hasn't been a match."

"Exactly," Rowan said. "We have asked the authorities to expand the search considerably, particularly around settlements near the Giant Chasm."

Candice nodded slowly. "And nobody reported the Cubchoo?"

"Not that we've found."

Her eyes moved toward the little Pokémon.

It had opened its eyes at some point during their conversation and was watching them quietly from beneath the blanket.

Candice wondered how much it understood.

Probably more than any of them.

"So the only person in this room who knows who that kid is can't tell us," she said.

The Cubchoo's ears twitched.

Cynthia smiled faintly. "I don't think it appreciated that."

"Well, if it wants to start writing, I'll apologize."

Rowan gave Candice a tired look before returning to the medical report.

"What about his condition?" she asked.

The slight change in Rowan's expression immediately put her on edge.

"He remains stable."

"You always say that first when the rest is bad."

"The rest is not necessarily bad. It is simply unusual."

"That isn't much better."

Rowan continued before she could interrupt again. "His core temperature remains considerably below what would be considered healthy for an ordinary human."

"How far below?"

"Enough that if you or I maintained the same temperature for any significant amount of time, we would require immediate treatment for hypothermia."

Candice glanced at the boy. "But he doesn't."

"No. His organs are functioning normally."

"And when the doctors warm him?"

"His temperature rises temporarily and then falls back to the same point."

Cynthia frowned. "His body is regulating itself there."

"That appears to be the case."

Candice stared at the blanket covering him. It seemed ridiculous now. They had spent the first night piling blankets around a child whose body apparently preferred temperatures that would leave everyone else shivering uncontrollably.

"What else?"

"His metabolism remains unusually slow. His circulation is normal despite his temperature, and several blood samples contained microscopic crystalline structures that we have not been able to identify."

Candice stopped with the coffee halfway to her mouth.

"Crystalline structures?"

Rowan nodded.

"Ice?"

"We do not know."

"Do they look like ice?"

"Yes."

"Do they melt?"

"No."

Candice lowered her cup. "Then I'm calling them ice until someone gives me a better word."

"That would be scientifically irresponsible."

"You'll survive."

Cynthia hid a smile behind her own cup.

Rowan continued. "More importantly, there appears to be no cellular damage from freezing. None."

Candice's amusement disappeared.

"None?"

"His tissues should show catastrophic damage if he was frozen normally. Ice crystals forming inside cells rupture membranes. That did not happen here. Whatever encased him did not freeze his body in the conventional sense."

"It put him to sleep," Candice said.

Rowan considered the wording. "That may actually be closer."

Candice looked toward the boy again. "And the white hair?"

"Complete depigmentation."

"Permanent?"

"We have no idea."

"Eyes too?"

Rowan nodded. "We briefly observed them during neurological examinations. The irises have been almost entirely stripped of visible pigmentation."

"Can he see?"

"All indications suggest that he can."

Candice leaned back and exhaled slowly. Every answer seemed to produce three more questions.

Cynthia approached the bedside and studied the boy for a moment. "Has there been any progress neurologically?"

"Considerable progress, actually. His brain activity has increased steadily since extraction."

"So why hasn't he woken up?"

Rowan glanced down at the sleeping child. "That remains unclear."

Candice groaned. "I hate that answer."

"I am aware."

For a while, nobody spoke. Candice watched the monitor beside the bed continue its steady rhythm. Six days of sitting beside it had made the sound strangely familiar. She had originally planned to stay until the doctors declared the boy stable, then return to Sinnoh while Rowan handled whatever came afterward.

Somehow, she was still here.

Cynthia seemed to read the thought from her expression.

"You know you don't have to spend every night here."

Candice kept looking at the boy. "I know."

"The nurses will call us if something changes."

"I know."

"And yet you're still sleeping in that chair."

Candice glanced at her. "It's a very comfortable chair."

Cynthia looked at the rigid hospital chair beside the bed.

"No, it isn't."

Candice shrugged.

The truth was harder to explain.

She had found him.

That probably shouldn't have meant anything. She had helped injured trainers before. She had carried lost children down from the routes surrounding Snowpoint. Being a Gym Leader came with responsibilities that had little to do with badges.

This felt different.

Maybe it was because she still remembered seeing his face through that ice.

Maybe it was because nobody seemed to know he existed.

Somewhere, there should have been someone looking for him. Parents. Siblings. Friends. Someone who knew what his voice sounded like, what food he hated, whether he kicked his blankets off while he slept.

Instead, there was nothing.

No name.

No home.

No history.

Only the Cubchoo curled up nearby.

Candice stood and walked toward the bed, pulling the blanket slightly higher over the boy before remembering again that he probably didn't need it.

"You'd better know something when you wake up," she muttered. "Because we're getting nowhere."

Behind her, the Cubchoo suddenly sat upright.

Candice turned.

Its eyes were fixed on the boy.

"What?"

The Pokémon pushed itself out from beneath its blanket.

Cynthia noticed too. "Something's wrong."

"No," Rowan said, already watching the monitor. "Something's changing."

The steady rhythm had begun to accelerate.

Candice stepped aside as Rowan approached the bed. The boy's fingers twitched beneath the blanket.

Once.

Then again.

The Cubchoo scrambled down from its smaller bed and rushed across the room before Candice could stop it. It pulled itself against the side of the mattress and began whining urgently.

"Easy," Candice said. "Give him some room."

The Pokémon ignored her.

The boy's brow tightened.

His breathing, perfectly slow and even for six days, suddenly became deeper.

Then he inhaled sharply.

Candice froze.

His head shifted against the pillow.

Rowan leaned closer, watching his pupils beneath his closed eyelids. "Don't crowd him. We don't know how disoriented he'll be."

Candice nodded, though she didn't take her eyes off him.

The Cubchoo made another quiet sound.

The boy's fingers curled.

Then his eyes opened.

Candice had already been warned about their appearance.

Knowing did not make seeing them any less startling.

His irises were almost entirely white, separated from the whites of his eyes by only the faintest trace of gray. For several seconds, they simply stared toward the ceiling.

He blinked.

Once.

Twice.

His gaze slowly began to move.

The ceiling.

The monitor.

The window.

Rowan.

Cynthia.

Candice.

There was no recognition in his face.

Only confusion.

Then the Cubchoo cried out.

The boy's head turned immediately.

Something changed in his expression.

Recognition.

His pale eyes widened as the Cubchoo struggled to climb onto the bed.

The boy lifted one trembling hand toward it.

The Cubchoo grabbed his wrist with both paws.

For the first time since opening his eyes, the boy seemed to breathe normally.

The boy stared at the Cubchoo for several seconds, his pale eyes fixed on it as if nothing else in the room existed. His hand trembled where the Pokémon held his wrist, but some of the fear had already begun to leave his face.

"Poro."

The word came out weak and rough.

Candice glanced at Rowan.

The Cubchoo made a high, relieved sound and pulled itself farther onto the bed. The boy immediately reached for it, gathering the Pokémon against his chest with both arms. Poro buried its face beneath his chin and clung to the front of his hospital gown.

Candice smiled faintly. "So that's your name."

The boy looked at her.

Candice nodded toward the Cubchoo. "Poro."

His eyes dropped back to the Pokémon.

"Poro," he repeated, more confidently this time.

Rowan moved closer to the bedside, though he kept enough distance not to crowd him. "Can you understand me?"

The boy looked at him and gave a small nod.

"Good. Do you know where you are?"

His gaze moved around the room again. "No."

His voice was barely above a whisper.

"You're in a hospital," Rowan said. "You've been unconscious for several days."

The boy frowned, clearly trying to make sense of the words. His fingers moved slowly through Poro's fur as though the familiar motion helped keep him grounded.

Candice pulled the chair closer and sat beside the bed. "We found you in the Giant Chasm."

The reaction was immediate.

The boy went rigid.

Poro felt it too. The Cubchoo lifted its head and looked at him.

Candice noticed the sudden change. "Do you know that name?"

The boy's brow tightened.

"Giant... Chasm."

He seemed to test the words.

For a moment, Candice thought something might come back to him. Instead, his expression became strained.

"I don't know."

"That's okay," she said quickly.

The boy closed his eyes.

A flash of something crossed his face.

Cold.

Darkness.

A silhouette disappearing into a tunnel.

He opened his eyes again and inhaled sharply.

Poro immediately pressed closer.

Candice leaned forward. "Hey. Don't force it."

The boy looked at her. "Who are you?"

"Candice."

He stared blankly.

"That's me," she added. "Candice."

She pointed toward Cynthia. "That's Cynthia."

Cynthia offered him a small smile.

"And the grumpy one is Professor Rowan."

Rowan sighed.

Candice looked back at the boy. "We were studying the ice in the Chasm when we found you."

The boy's eyes moved toward Rowan.

"The ice?"

Rowan nodded. "You and your Cubchoo were completely encased in it."

The boy looked down at Poro.

His grip tightened slightly.

"How long?"

The three adults exchanged a glance.

Candice hated the question because she already knew what Rowan was going to say.

"We don't know," he answered.

The boy looked up.

"You don't know?"

"The ice preserved you in a way we do not fully understand. It makes determining how much time passed extremely difficult."

His expression became more confused.

"Was it... long?"

"Possibly."

Rowan's voice remained careful.

"We have reason to believe you were there longer than a few days. It could have been months. It could have been longer."

The boy stared at him.

Candice watched his face closely.

There was no sudden horror. No recognition of a date he had missed.

That concerned her more than if he had panicked.

"Do you know what year it is?" Rowan asked.

The boy opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

His fingers stopped moving through Poro's fur.

"I..."

He looked toward the window.

"I don't know."

Rowan nodded slowly. "That's alright."

"What happened to me?"

"We're still trying to understand that."

The boy looked down at himself.

His hands were pale beneath the hospital lights.

He turned one over.

Then the other.

His gaze lingered on his fingers.

"What?"

Candice frowned. "What is it?"

The boy slowly lifted a hand toward his hair and caught a few strands between his fingers.

He stared at them.

White.

His breathing changed.

"What happened to my hair?"

Candice's expression softened.

"We don't know."

The boy looked at her sharply.

"It's white."

"I know."

"No."

He pulled more of it forward as if expecting the color to change.

"It wasn't."

That got Rowan's attention.

"You remember your hair?"

The boy stopped.

For several seconds, he didn't move.

Then his face tightened.

"I think so."

"What color was it?" Cynthia asked gently.

He tried to answer.

Nothing came.

"I don't know."

His voice cracked.

Poro whimpered.

The boy looked around the room again, faster this time. His eyes moved from Candice to Rowan to Cynthia and then back to Poro.

"What's my name?"

Nobody answered immediately.

Candice felt her stomach sink.

"We were hoping you could tell us."

The boy stared at her.

His expression went completely still.

"What?"

"We haven't been able to identify you."

He shook his head once.

"No."

Candice leaned closer. "It's okay."

"No, I..."

He pressed one hand against his forehead.

"I know it."

Poro watched him anxiously.

"I have to know it."

The monitor beside him began to speed up.

Rowan glanced toward it.

"Don't push yourself."

The boy ignored him.

His eyes squeezed shut.

A house.

Snow.

Someone laughing.

A hand resting on his head.

Then nothing.

He opened his eyes.

"I can't remember."

Candice said nothing.

The boy looked down.

"I remember Poro."

The Cubchoo immediately made a quiet sound at the mention of its name.

The boy pulled it closer.

"I remember him."

"That's good," Candice said.

"But I don't remember me."

The words seemed to hollow him out.

Candice had no immediate answer.

Cynthia stepped closer to the bedside. "Memory loss after trauma isn't always permanent."

The boy looked at her.

"You may recover pieces with time."

"May?"

Cynthia hesitated.

That was answer enough.

The boy looked away.

For a long moment, the room was silent.

Then Candice noticed him staring at the blanket.

"What?"

He didn't answer.

His pale eyes moved from the white blanket to the white strands of hair resting against his shoulders.

Then to his hands.

Candice waited.

"Everything's white."

She looked around.

"What do you mean?"

"My hair."

He touched it again.

"My eyes too, right?"

Candice paused.

The boy noticed.

"They are."

He looked down at himself again.

"White."

The word lingered in the room.

Candice tilted her head. "White?"

He didn't respond at first.

His eyes remained on his hands.

"I need a name."

"You don't have to decide that now."

The boy looked at her.

"Yes, I do."

There was something firmer in his voice now.

Small, but there.

Candice studied him.

"What about your real name?"

He went quiet.

"I don't know it."

"You might remember."

"Maybe."

He looked down at Poro.

"But until then..."

The Cubchoo rested its head against his chest.

The boy ran one hand gently between its ears.

"White."

Candice smiled faintly.

"That what you want us to call you?"

He thought about it.

Then nodded.

"White."

Rowan made a note in the folder.

Cynthia's expression softened.

Candice leaned back in her chair.

"Alright then."

White looked at her.

She smiled.

"Nice to meet you, White."

He stared at her for a moment, as though the words were unfamiliar.

Then he looked down at Poro.

For the first time since waking, the emptiness in his expression seemed a little less complete.

---

The next few days passed slowly.

White slept through most of the first one. The doctors had warned Candice that his body would need time to adjust after waking, though nobody seemed particularly confident about what exactly it was adjusting from. He would stay awake for twenty or thirty minutes, answer a few questions, eat whatever little food he could manage, then drift back to sleep with Poro tucked against his side.

The Cubchoo refused to leave him.

That much had not changed.

What Candice had not expected was for White to develop much the same attitude toward her.

She first noticed it the morning after he woke.

A nurse had asked Candice to step outside while they examined him. She had agreed without thinking much of it, leaving Poro behind and following Rowan into the hallway to discuss the results of another round of tests. They had made it halfway through the conversation when shouting came from inside the room.

Candice rushed back in.

White was sitting upright in bed, breathing hard as two nurses tried unsuccessfully to convince him to lie back down. Frost had formed across the metal railing beside his hand, thin white crystals spreading toward the mattress.

Poro stood between him and the nurses with his tiny arms spread protectively.

The moment White saw Candice in the doorway, he stopped.

Not gradually.

Immediately.

His breathing remained heavy, but his shoulders lowered.

Candice glanced at the frost, then at him. "What happened?"

One of the nurses sighed. "We were trying to examine him. He became distressed when he realized you were gone."

White looked away.

Candice raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"No."

The answer came so quickly that one of the nurses almost laughed.

Candice looked at the ice coating the bed railing.

"Right."

White pulled the blanket farther over himself.

Candice walked back to the chair beside his bed and sat down. "I was thirty feet away."

He said nothing.

"I wasn't leaving."

Still nothing.

Poro climbed back onto the mattress and curled against White's leg.

Candice looked toward the nurses. "Try again."

The examination went considerably better with her sitting beside him.

At first she assumed it was simply because she had been there when he woke. She was the first person White remembered seeing besides Poro, so it made sense that he would associate her with safety.

Then it kept happening.

White tolerated Rowan. He seemed uncertain around Cynthia but never particularly afraid of her. Nurses and doctors were treated with quiet suspicion, though he usually did whatever they asked once their intentions were explained. Strangers were different. If someone entered the room without warning, his entire posture changed.

With Candice, he relaxed.

Not completely.

White never seemed completely relaxed.

But enough.

On the third morning, Candice arrived later than usual and found him standing beside the window.

He was still weak enough that the doctors had forbidden him from walking without supervision, but apparently that rule had lasted until the moment White decided he was tired of following it. One hand rested against the wall for support while Poro stood anxiously beside his feet.

Candice stopped in the doorway.

"You know you're supposed to be in bed."

White looked over his shoulder.

"I was."

"And now?"

"I'm not."

Candice stared at him for a moment.

"That is technically true."

White turned back toward the window.

Snow had begun falling outside.

It wasn't much. Just a light dusting drifting between the buildings, barely enough to settle on the streets before melting.

White watched it anyway.

Candice approached him.

"You like snow?"

He took a while to answer.

"I think so."

"You think?"

White lifted one hand and touched the cold glass.

"It feels familiar."

Candice's expression softened.

"Do you remember anything?"

He shook his head.

"No places?"

"No."

"People?"

Another shake.

"Anything besides Poro?"

White looked toward the Cubchoo.

"Sometimes."

Candice waited.

He stared through the window.

"I remember being cold."

That wasn't particularly surprising.

"And someone."

Candice became still.

"Someone?"

White nodded.

"A person?"

"I think."

"What did they look like?"

"I don't know."

His brow furrowed.

"I can't see his face."

His.

Candice made a mental note of it.

"What do you remember?"

White remained quiet for so long that she thought he might not answer.

"He was running."

Candice looked at him.

"Away from something?"

White's pale eyes remained fixed on the falling snow.

"Away from me."

There was no accusation in his voice.

That somehow made it worse.

Candice chose her next words carefully. "Memories can get mixed up after something frightening."

"Maybe."

"You might remember more later."

White lowered his hand from the window.

"Maybe."

Candice had started to hate that word almost as much as she hated I don't know.

She bumped his shoulder lightly with hers.

"Come on. Back to bed before somebody realizes I'm letting you break the rules."

"But you're the Gym Leader."

White said it casually.

Candice stopped.

"How do you know that?"

He looked at her.

"You told me."

"Oh."

Candice narrowed her eyes.

White's mouth moved.

Barely.

But she saw it.

"Did you just smile at me?"

"No."

"You absolutely did."

"I didn't."

Candice grinned as she guided him back toward the bed. "Okay, Snowflake."

White stopped walking.

"No."

"Oh, you don't like that one?"

"No."

"Frosty?"

"No."

"Vanilla?"

White stared at her.

Candice laughed.

It was the first time she saw genuine annoyance on his face.

Strangely, she considered it progress.

By the fourth day, the doctors were discussing discharge.

Physically, White had recovered far faster than any of them expected. His muscles had weakened somewhat during his time within the ice, but not nearly to the degree they should have. He could walk on his own, eat normally, and showed no neurological impairment beyond his memory loss.

Everything unusual about his body appeared to be stable.

His temperature remained low.

His pigmentation remained absent.

The strange crystalline formations in his blood remained unexplained.

And the frost continued appearing occasionally when he became frightened or overwhelmed.

Nobody knew whether any of those things would ever change.

His memory showed even less progress.

White knew language. He understood numbers, basic geography, Pokémon, battling, and most of the ordinary knowledge expected from a child his age. He knew what a Poké Ball was. He knew what a Pokémon Center did. He recognized species when shown photographs of them.

But anything connected to himself was fractured.

He could remember Poro.

He remembered snow.

He occasionally remembered a voice or a hand or the feeling of following someone larger than himself.

Nothing had a name.

Nothing had a place.

There was another problem too.

They still had nowhere to send him.

Candice stood outside his hospital room that afternoon with Cynthia and Rowan while White slept inside.

"So what happens now?" she asked.

Rowan adjusted the papers in his hands. "The Unovan authorities will arrange temporary care while they continue searching for his family."

Candice frowned immediately.

"Temporary care where?"

"A facility equipped to house unidentified minors."

"He's not going to like that."

"That is unfortunately not the deciding factor."

Candice folded her arms.

Cynthia watched her.

Rowan noticed too. "Candice."

"What?"

"You cannot solve every unfortunate situation personally."

"I didn't say I was going to."

"No," Cynthia said. "Your face did."

Candice looked between them.

"My face didn't say anything."

Cynthia smiled. "It has been saying quite a lot for the last four days."

Candice glanced through the small window in the hospital door.

White was asleep on his side, one hand resting on Poro's back.

She frowned.

"He doesn't know anyone here."

"That is precisely why the authorities are continuing the search," Rowan replied.

"And until they find someone?"

"He will be cared for."

"By strangers."

Rowan sighed. "Everyone is a stranger to him at the moment."

Candice looked back at him. "I'm not."

The words came out before she really thought about them.

The hallway went quiet.

Candice blinked.

Cynthia's expression changed slightly.

Rowan studied her.

Candice rubbed the back of her neck. "You know what I mean."

"I believe we do," Cynthia said.

Candice looked through the window again.

She hadn't planned for any of this.

She had come to Unova to study ice.

That was it.

A strange report, an excuse to travel, maybe something interesting to bring back to Snowpoint.

Instead she had found a child inside a glacier.

And now, somehow, that child wouldn't sleep properly if she wasn't somewhere nearby.

"It's probably because I'm an Ice trainer," she said.

Rowan raised an eyebrow.

"I'm serious."

Candice looked down the hallway as if trying to put the thought together herself.

"He reacts to my Pokémon differently. You saw him with Abomasnow yesterday."

Cynthia nodded.

White had been introduced to Candice's Pokémon gradually once the doctors permitted it. He had been cautious around all of them, but something changed when Abomasnow entered the room. White had walked toward the enormous Pokémon without hesitation and placed a hand against its fur.

Abomasnow, normally reserved around unfamiliar humans, had immediately lowered its head for him.

Froslass had been stranger.

She had stared at White for nearly a minute before drifting close enough to touch one frozen hand against his forehead. White had closed his eyes.

Candice had never seen Froslass do that with anyone.

"He likes the cold," Candice continued. "Ice-types calm him down. Maybe I do too because he associates me with them."

"Possible," Rowan admitted.

Candice looked at him. "You believe me?"

"I said possible."

"I'll take it."

Cynthia's smile faded into something gentler.

"And when you return to Sinnoh?"

Candice went quiet.

That was the problem.

Her responsibilities had already been waiting nearly a week. Snowpoint had an acting Gym supervisor, but Candice couldn't remain in Unova indefinitely.

White, however, could not simply follow her home.

At least, that was what she had told herself.

The hospital door opened behind them.

All three turned.

White stood there.

He was barefoot, wearing the loose clothes the hospital had given him, with Poro clinging to one leg.

Candice stared at him.

"How much of that did you hear?"

White didn't answer.

His eyes moved between Rowan and Cynthia before settling on Candice.

"You're leaving?"

Candice's chest tightened.

"Eventually."

"When?"

"I don't know yet."

White looked down.

Poro pressed closer to his ankle.

Candice stepped toward him. "Hey. That doesn't mean I'm disappearing."

White gave a small nod.

He didn't believe her.

She could tell immediately.

Something about his expression had changed. The same blank stillness she had seen whenever his missing memories overwhelmed him had begun settling over his face again.

Candice crouched so they were closer to eye level.

"You know you're not supposed to walk around without shoes, right?"

White ignored that.

"Can I come?"

Candice stopped.

Rowan looked away as though suddenly fascinated by the opposite wall.

Cynthia said nothing.

White's pale eyes stayed on Candice.

"Come where?"

"With you."

"To Sinnoh?"

He nodded.

Candice opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

White looked down again.

"Never mind."

He turned toward the room.

Candice caught his wrist gently.

"Wait."

White looked back.

She stared at him for a few seconds.

This was ridiculous.

She was a Gym Leader.

She had challengers, trainers, paperwork, responsibilities, and an entire city that expected her to occasionally behave like a functioning adult.

She knew almost nothing about this child.

She didn't know his real name.

She didn't know where he came from.

She didn't know whether someone was searching for him.

She certainly didn't know what she was supposed to do with a ten-year-old boy who occasionally froze furniture when he got upset.

Candice looked at Poro.

The Cubchoo stared back.

Then she looked at White.

He was trying very hard not to look hopeful.

Candice sighed.

"Professor."

Rowan closed his eyes briefly.

"No."

"I haven't even asked anything."

"I know what you are about to ask."

"Then we're saving time."

"Candice."

She smiled.

"How difficult would it be?"

Rowan stared at her.

Cynthia began laughing quietly.

White looked between all three of them in confusion.

Candice stood and put a hand gently on his white hair.

"Don't get excited yet."

White looked up at her.

"We have paperwork."

His expression remained uncertain.

Candice smiled.

"A lot of paperwork."

For the first time since she had found him beneath the ice, White reached for her without fear or hesitation.

His fingers wrapped around the sleeve of her coat.

Candice looked down at his hand.

Then at him.

Something in her expression softened.

"Yeah," she murmured. "I think we'll figure something out."

---

Three days later, White stood beside Candice at the terminal with Poro held tightly against his chest.

The paperwork had taken longer than Candice expected and somehow less time than Rowan had predicted. With Rowan and Cynthia vouching for her and the Unovan and Sinnoh Leagues coordinating the arrangement, she had been granted temporary guardianship while the search for White's family continued. Unofficially, everyone involved seemed relieved that the strange, unidentified boy from the Giant Chasm had somewhere stable to go.

White had spoken little that morning. He followed Candice through the station, stayed close when strangers passed, and occasionally looked back toward the doors behind them as though expecting someone to appear.

No one did.

When the call came for passengers traveling to Sinnoh, Candice adjusted the strap of her bag and looked down at him.

"Ready?"

White stared through the enormous windows toward the waiting ship.

"I think so."

"That convincing, huh?"

He glanced at her.

Candice smiled and started forward. After a moment, White followed.

They had almost reached the gate when he stopped.

Candice turned. "What is it?"

White was looking behind them.

Past the crowds.

Past the terminal.

Toward a region he could no longer remember.

For just a moment, something pulled at him.

A snowy road.

A warm hand resting on his head.

Someone laughing.

Then pale yellow eyes.

A figure turning away.

Running.

The memory vanished before White could hold onto it.

His grip tightened around Poro.

"White?"

He looked up at Candice.

"Nothing."

Candice studied him, then held out her hand.

White stared at it.

He didn't know why the gesture made his chest hurt.

For a few seconds, he simply stood there.

Then he reached out and took it.

Candice gave his hand a gentle squeeze before leading him toward the gate.

White never looked back again.

He did not know that somewhere in Unova, a family still mourned a child they believed had died years ago. He did not know that an older brother carried the weight of leaving him behind every day. He did not know that beneath the Giant Chasm, something ancient had changed him in ways none of them yet understood.

He knew only three things.

Poro was beside him.

Candice was holding his hand.

And when someone asked his name, he finally had an answer.

White.

For now, that was enough.

---

AN: Aaaaaaand cut!!! Wow, that was a lot of writing! I hope you guys like the small bit of angst I put into this prologue here to (hopefully) get the ball rolling.. I decided that I wanted to make my first published fanfic about a personal OC of mine in the Pokemon world because well.. It's just really fun and easy to make a good story from there! I do plan on keeping many of the canon in-game and story elements, but also plan on switching up a few things to keep the overall more serious narrative flowing properly. I'll also keep a comprehensive list of Pokemon of all relevant characters on every chapter from now on (once they start getting a little annoying to keep track of) Anyways, I look forward to sharing more of this story soon!!!