Nothing.

Written in wish of some coolness in the heatwave here.

"Volkner?" her voice is fading, not cheerful like it should be.

There's red around her. Funny, she should be near the snow, the pure white snow she loves so much.

"Yeah, Candice?"

"I'm scared."

"Don't be."

There's no reason to be. Everything will be fine, and she'll dust herself clean, get up, and chatter to him until he's half annoyed, half amused, and everything will be Arceus-damned fine. There's no war, no death, nothing bad. Everything will be fine.

Won't it?

She giggles, but a trickle of red comes out of her mouth. "I love you, I think."

"I think I love you too."

His large, tanned hand is smoothing her locks of black away from her pale, pale face. He doesn't look at her red-stained stomach. He doesn't think he can handle reality.

"Really?" her voice is childish, young and carefree.

"Really," he echoes, gripping her hand. She won't leave him. He won't let go.

"That's…." she draws a rattling breath. "That's nice."

He waits for her to say more, but her brown eyes are glassy and she's still, and suddenly she's just the shell of what Candice was, everything that made her the fiery ice-user gone from her.

He doesn't shed a tear, the stoic blond. He picks her up instead, shoulders his weapons and supplies, and starts his trudge to Snowpoint.

Movement. Shoot. Splash of blood, life of someone gone.

He continues north, still holding her in his arms.

No more allies, enemies, neutral folks. Anyone that's not him or her is eliminated. Simple.

He keeps walking with her unmoving in his arms.

He thinks he hears her ahead, laughing and gesturing at him to hurry up, move those legs!

A ghost of a smile plays at the corners of his mouth.

Somewhere, it started snowing. The land he walks is now icy and frozen over, the snow blurring all the way. Thank whatever twisted deity in charge of this that there's no more Pokémon, because even his faithful gun can't handle those creatures.

Dimly, he remembers two titans of ice and grass, or lightning and thunder that used to grapple while he and Candice watched.

The cold, stiff shell in his arms reminds him that he needs to get going.

He sets off into the blur of white, a lonely figure hunched over something unmoving in his arms walking towards cold death.

When everything is finally over, and peace isn't just a dream but reality, a hiker stumbles onto the icy resting place of two Gym Leaders.

Their smiles are frozen onto their lips, and they're in the embrace of each other forever. It's like they're sleeping, and you could wake them up.

Impossible to break them apart. They're buried together.

He was quiet, but he'd always had a flair for drama and romance.