This had to be done.

Snow was drifting through the white air, and Pokémon were either hibernating off in their dens or tents or playing in the piles of powdery snow. Grovyle could only sit and stare from under the cover of a leafless tree.

That idiot Celebi! he thought. She sent me back into winter!

He'd only read about winter before, as their seasons never changed in the future, but he'd never expected it to be this horrid. It was cold and everywhere he walked, evidence of his existence was left behind. How on Arceus's earth was he supposed to collect the five Time Gears undetected?!

Bitterly, he waited around until night fell, ignoring the pangs of hunger he felt. That was another downfall – nothing grew in winter and all prey was off hidden. He would sooner starve than even get caught!

Though the snow couldn't blind him at night, it was even colder and his teeth were chattering with every step he took.

"Stupid Celebi, stupid Celebi," he muttered darkly, tightly crossing his arms over his chest. The cold was becoming overwhelming and he soon realized that he couldn't go on without finding some sort of shelter. Numbly, he plodded down a partially-cleared path until he came across a set of stairs. He looked up them and could faintly see the burning glow of four torches. Grovyle stumbled up the stairs and finally collapsed at the top, breathing heavily.

In front of him was a pink, Wigglytuff-shaped tent, but there was a gate of interwoven branches blocking the entrance. Grovyle muttered curses under his breath and walked towards it to see if he could break in, until he felt a burst of warmth from below.

He glanced down and realized he was standing on a grate. He couldn't see what was below it, but there was some sort of heat source down there.

"Thank Arceus..." Grovyle sighed, then lay down over the grate. Its texture was rough but it felt like a soft bed under his body. His eyes closed and he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Within a week, Grovyle had stolen all of the Time Gears. It was too cold for anyone to want to do anything about it or even care. In order to get to the Hidden Land, he would have to travel back by the small town to steal the relic fragment from some poor bloke at Wigglytuff's Guild.

But when night fell and he had made his way up the steps, he stopped suddenly. There was the grate that had saved him on his first night in the past, still in its place in the ground.

I have to focus on my task, he thought, trying to shove the grate from his mind. I break into the guild by destroying this feeble little grate and take the fragment. No deviating.

But as he was about to unleash his Leaf Blade attack on the grate, his arm stopped. He couldn't do it.

Grovyle lowered his arm and sighed. First, he had to do something.

"Grate," he murmured, "thank you. Thank you for lending me your warmth and..." His eyes began to fill up with tears that he hastily rubbed away. "I missed you. I missed you while I was out collecting the Time Gears. Before, I came because I had nothing to live for, but now..."

Grovyle fell to his knees and exclaimed, "I can't live without you! I can't bear to end my life by carrying out my mission! I love you!"

The grate was silent and still.

Grovyle fumbled through his bag and pulled out a Time Gear, then got to one knee. "Grate, I want you to be with me for the rest of my life!" He held out the Time Gear to the grate. "Will you marry me?"

The grate continued to be silent.

"You...you will?" Grovyle asked. He broke into a smile. "Oh, grate!" He flung himself at the grate in an attempted hug and smacked his head so hard that he was instantly knocked out.

Underneath the grate, Diglett and Loudred watched the spectacle with amused grins.

"Well, Diglett, you were RIGHT," Loudred said, clapping his friend on the back. "That X-Eye Seed gas worked PERFECTLY!"

Diglett nodded, turning off the machine that had been producing the gas. "That'll teach him for trying to steal our Time Gears. And for getting the grate to cheat on me." He lowered his voice. "That bastard."