A Maiden's Voyage

by tinyweevil

200 years into the future, Team Galactic and the Society of Pokemon have divided the Sinnoh Region. These two factions have been at war ever since Aria Verne Ketchum, descendant to a renowned pokemon master, was born. Now it's Aria's turn to embark on her own strenuous adventure along with her Rotom. She discovers new people and new pokemon but at many costs in her narration.

11. Chapter 11 - The Bridge

A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 11: The Bridge

I was startled awake in a huge room. My heart was racing when I realized I was in the Society building. I was lying in a bed in the huge room and there were many beds surrounding mine, accept none of them were in use. I tried standing up but a searing pain shot up both my legs as my knees rejected the request to move. They were both shattered when I fell and this couldn't have been have a dream because of the fact that this paralyzing pain in my legs bound me to my bed. I looked around. It looked like any normal large stadium and I wondered where I could be. The last thing I remembered was being put to sleep by a pokemon and nothing after that.

"Hello?" I said to the room and heard my voice echo. There was no response and I couldn't see any people walking through the glass doors of the large room I was in. I didn't understand why I was here and why these beds needed to be in such a large room. With terrible pain, I reached for Rotom's pokeball to find it wasn't anywhere near me. I checked my pockets, I looked around the bed where I was but there was no pokeball in sight. All of my pokemon were taken from me and I just laid there in that bed, miserable.

I was startled again, when a dark-skinned girl entered the stadium and began walking towards me. I saw her out of the corner of my eye and saw she was around my age and wore jet black stilettos. Her light brown hair was cut short and looked like it was professionally done by a hair artist. She was beautiful to look at but I was still frightened.

"Where am I, who are you?" I tried sitting up, frightened, with pain in my legs. The girl saw that I was in pain and walked faster, and came to my side trying to comfort me.

"Wow. I can't believe I was lucky enough to find you before they did." The girl said, smiling, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Her official looking clothes told me Society, but the way she held herself and her smile just looked so genuine. I hadn't seen a smile like that in a long time.

"Before who? And answer my questions." I said, never letting my eyes leave hers.

"Alright." She said sitting on a bed nearest mine.

"My name is Hera." The dark-skinned girl said, still smiling at me, bowing her head when she said her name. "What's yours?"

"Aria." I said looking at her cautiously. She smiled even brighter when I said my name and she stood up raising her arms.

"Well Aria, it's my pleasure to welcome you to, the Bridge." She exclaimed and I was so confused.

"I better explain." She chuckled to herself and sat back down. I was horrified.

"You see, the Bridge is an organization, like the Society and Team Galactic. But we operate on a completely different magnitude. We see through both of these factions to reveal their true ugly selves because in reality nobody in Sinnoh is safe anymore. We are born and raised in a world governed by fear and violence. The people who are supposed to be watching over us, protecting us, are the ones using us for their corrupted deeds. The Bridge was founded upon many years ago before the war started, in secrecy. It was just a small group of people in a secret society that wanted to maintain peace. It blossomed into this gigantic structure we take residence in now, after the war started. This place might look a little futuristic to you, and that's because we have a top-notch staff of technicians and material scientists backed by a huge sum of money used to support the Bridge. Currently, we are about one hundred feet below the ground where my Alakazam found you. Our cameras picked up everything from you escaping the building to you falling asleep but what I'm curious of is what happened inside of the Society Headquarters?" She said looking at me curiously.

I was in shock and started whimpering. Hera came up to me again, and tried calming me down. She asked me nicely, again to tell the story of what happened and so I did. I described in detail of everything that happened to me on my journey to her in this large stadium. I had no idea where I was or who I was talking to but I just kept on repeating the events of my life to this girl. She nodded at some of the parts and when I came to the Society part she looked more solemn and even gasped, holding her hand up to her mouth when I told her my Dusknoir was killed in a fire.

"That is unforgivable." She said shaking her head.

"I'm going to do my best to cheer you up, because I really want to be friends." She said looking at me without smiling.

"Why!" I screamed. "Why me? Where's Rotom!" I said trying to move again only to be shut down because of my injured legs. Hera talked to me more about this large place. She said it's one of the most beautiful treasures the Sinnoh Region holds like the chapel in Snowpoint City or the Sendoff Springs, both of which I had never heard of. She said the Bridge had many circular floors stacked on top of each other all with a side that faces the Gardens. These gardens, she described, where the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed before in her life. An artificial light source replicating the energy given off by the sun was placed into the top of the entire complex and shone down into the gardens way down below, acting like an artificial sun to all the pokemon who inhabited them. Hera said I would get to see these gardens for myself once my legs healed.

"Oh, and your Rotom was also healed in our medical lab, then released into the Gardens, I see your pokemon from the windows just floating by itself. I think it misses you, Aria." She said standing up from the bed. She pulled out a pokeball of her own from her pocket and released a puffy, pink Blissey.

"My Blissey will treat your wounds for the next few days, accelerating the recovery phase. You should be on crutches by the end of the day." She smiled and left the room. When she left, the Blissey turned to me and jumped with excitement. I would spend the next two days with this Blissey. These days were filled with unfathomable torture. I was stuck watching the Blissey play around by itself and it played with me for the entirety of the two days. The Blissey taught me a game where we slap each others hands, clap, then clap with just our left hands, then our right hands, lefts, rights, the backs of our hands and then clapped together again. I didn't know the name of this game but the Blissey insisted on playing it to pass the time.

On the first day I attempted to get up once and couldn't. The Blissey, although angry at first, retrieved some medicine and the pain subsided but I wasn't allowed to walk. When the artificial sunlight peeking from the stadium window began diminishing, the Blissey ordered me to bed. I really needed to use the restroom and the Blissey sighed, but allowed me to lean on her body as I limped to the bathroom all the way across the stadium. It was so painful and sitting on that toilet was the best thing I've felt in a long time it seemed. The Blissey pounded on my stall door and after I had finished, the Blissey opened the stall door and I fell onto her back as she was facing the sink right in front of us. I tried stepping down as she carried by whole body but it was too painful. We slowly walked to that bed in about five minutes of waddling. When the Blissey arrived at the bed I calmly got back, a little upset that I would be bedridden again, but quickly fell asleep after the Blissey collapsed from exhaustion.

That night I dreamed about what would've happened if instead of Hera finding me, the Society had found me and I would be taken back to that wretched building where my brain would be totally fried. I shook in the middle of the night, from nightmares and the Blissey was startled awake, then hobbled over to me and fed me some sort of sweet I had never tasted before in my life. I thought about that sweet the entire night and it was as though the Blissey's candy was mind-altering, causing my dreams to be filled with marshmallows and gumdrops. I haven't had a sound dream like this in a long time, but it reminded me of home too much. Before another thought could enter my head I was sound asleep.

That next morning, I felt rejuvenated. I wasn't cured completely, but after the Blissey gave me more medicine she left to fetch me a cup of water. I waited for around twenty minutes while the Blissey navigated through the Bridge and I just laid there on that warm bed and thought about the Gardens, Hera was talking about. I wanted to see them for myself or perhaps walk through them with Rotom. I think I deserved a vacation.

When the Blissey came back, she had worn around her shoulder, a small bag and carried two crutches in her stubby little hands. As she approached the bed I was in, she dumped the crutches on the floor and sat down on the ground. She procured a water bottle and handed it to me, huffing. I watched her huff as I raised the bottle to my lips, but instead beckoned it to her. Hera's Blissey was elated and took the bottle from me. She poured a little bit of water into her mouth and then returned the bottle to me. I drank the entire thing in less than five seconds. I knew it meant I would have to use the bathroom again and I really wanted those crutches.

My knees were aching after three straight clapping games with the Blissey and I wanted to walk around a little. The Blissey hesitated at first, but hopped off the bed and retrieved the fallen crutches, handing them to me. In the ninth grade I broke my foot after we won our regional game. It was exciting but painful and these crutches brought back memories from that wondrous time. The Blissey helped me from the bed as I looked from the ground to my knees. Before we could even get to the ground, I saw Hera walk into the stadium. She smiled when our eyes met and I returned a quick half smile and looked at the teasing ground again. The Blissey helped me sit back onto the bed as Hera and I talked.

"Have you been taking your medicine like Blissey instructed you to, Aria?" She retook the same seat she sat in yesterday. Today Hera wore her hair in the same neat, professional way she wore it yesterday and she wore a black skirt topped by a gray sweater and it revealed her pearl white undershirt. She wore a different, but still black pair of stilettos and I didn't understand this because I always thought of girls who wore those kinds of shoes, to be promiscuous and unintelligent. Hera didn't strike me as neither.

"Yeah. I feel a little better." I told her, and this time looking up at her smiling face. She always smiled at me yet we both knew nothing about the other individual.

"That's nice to know because the medicine I put you on, when taken in the right way provides extremely fast regeneration of torn and damaged tissue. You should be able to crawl without any pain right about." She paused. "Now." She chuckled and I emitted a soft laugh, too. This girl seemed like the perfect friend but I didn't really trust anybody right now.

"When will I be able to leave this place." I said looking at her seriously. She returned a frightened look and almost shattered into pieces at the thought of me leaving.

"Oh. I'm not sure that's a wise idea." She looked at me with utmost sincerity, but I had a journey to get on with. Then a sledgehammer figuratively hit me on the head. My father was in danger. I had to leave now.

"You don't understand I need to leave right now. My Dad is in danger." I said fussing around in the bed trying to get up but the Blissey held me down and calmed me with her dagger-like eyes. Tears were brought to my eyes and Hera ordered Blissey to let me go. I just laid in that bed crying, while that girl and her pokemon watched me.

"I. I am really sorry to hear about that. I kind of assumed... but we will make arrangements to bring your father here. He can stay in the protection of the Bridge for as long as he desires. You, too." She stood up.

"Assumed what?"

"I thought you were an orphan."

"What." I whispered to myself. I looked up as the girl began departing the large room. On the bed, she left a book that I saw titled as The Houses of the Bridge. I never read the book but I did get some sleep. This time my day nap was comprised of nightmare after nightmare as I dreamed my Dad or my friends would get taken by the Society or worse. I needed to get out of this place and find my Dad. I haven't talked to him in a long time and what a surprise it would be coming home from a pokemon journey and saying "hey Dad were moving to the Bridge let's go." The Blissey tried feeding me another sweet pink treat but it didn't make the pain go away this time.

My nap turned into a full on deep sleep and I awoke when everything was pitch black, desperately needing to use the bathroom. I got up from the bed and walked over to the bathroom I had made acquaintance with before. After washing my hands and looking at my dirtied face in the mirror I realized, and screamed with elation over the fact that my legs were fixed. It mystified me that some medicine could cure both my broken knees in only two days. I washed off the grime between my fingernails and washed my hair a little, too. Tomorrow I would take a shower for sure.

Two things kept me from sleeping that night. The first was my day napping turning me nocturnal. I also felt a touch of animosity for being held in this large stadium for two days without seeing Rotom so I quietly crept past the sleeping Blissey, who was around fifteen feet from where I was due to the hugeness of this room. I still wondered why they put beds in a stadium made for sports but this place was beyond me. The door to the stadium automatically opened when I approached it and it was pitch dark except for lights strung up on the tops of the hallway I was in. The hallway was narrow and after exploring my area a little, I came across an adjacent hallway. There were no doors on the sides of this hallway and I came closer to the center of the Bridge. I was met with a large window that revealed the dark gardens Hera was talking about.

I couldn't see anything except the faint reflection of a river down below and there were no definite edges or corners I could see. I tried to find a faint glow in the bottom, hoping it would be Rotom but maybe we were just so high up that I couldn't see the glow or anything. Instead I just carefully remembered how to get back to that stadium. After walking through the automatic doors, I crept back into bed, jittery from being able to walk again, but couldn't sleep no matter how many times I tried shutting my eyes.

Laying in that bed wasn't too bad. The Bridge people had definitely picked out the most comfortable ones and I was thankful for that. But I was more thankful for these people taking me in, it's just I didn't feel a hundred percent safe being in this place.

The artificial sunlight began peeking around the hallway I had walked through last night and slowly illuminated the stadium. The lights flickered on automatically when the sunlight began and the Blissey soon shook awake, yawning a bit, then offered me more medicine and water. I shook my head and stood up, but the Blissey persisted. I ended up taking the last capsule of medicine and drank more water left for me by Hera. In the morning, the Blissey pointed to the door and then held its hand out to me. I knew what it had offered me and I was obliged to take that pokemon's stubby little hand.

I kept to myself as we walked down the same hallway I had walked through before. Blissey turned the same corner as I had the previous night and we approached the same window only this time my mouth had dropped open. Several hundred feet below us in an enclosed area, was a colossal expanse of land. There was a forest region, a small mountain nearby and even a large lake where I saw a Wailord gliding near the surface. Several bird pokemon flew in the sky and I could even make out the definite shapes of the Staravia and Fearow as they flew in the air.

Searching for Rotom was impossible from this high altitude so I asked if we could go down there and the Blissey shook her head. Instead, she led me all the way down the floor until I saw doors and even heard other people in them. The Blissey walked up to a large door and the room that was behind it jutted into the huge room enclosing the Gardens. I saw a window once we entered the room, where lots of big bird pokemon were flying in high altitudes. Inside the room looked like the inside of a spaceship with people working on computers. On the second floor of this room I saw Hera working on a laptop in front of her and sitting across from her was a man. She noticed us walk in and ran down the steps to hug me.

"I knew the medicine would work!" She exclaimed still hugging me. She wasn't wearing her stilettos today and just wore dark work shoes that clicked when she walked. The chair that was in front of hers was occupied by an aesthetically pleasing looking guy that walked down and put his arm around Hera's shoulder.

"Aria. This is one of the leaders of the Bridge, and my boyfriend, Alexander." Alex saluted me with two fingers and smiled a little when he saw me.

"Welcome." He said, walking up to me and shaking my hand. "Yes, my name is Alex and you are standing in my office. Have you had a chance to see the view." He pointed to the circular window above the stairs on the top part of the room. I nodded and he returned my nod with his own nod, then went and stood beside Hera.

"Aria, right now you are on the Psychic floor of the Bridge. There are many floors that make up this circular building, one for each type of pokemon. The Psychic type manage the topmost floor. Our pokemon our adept at sensing disturbances and we are responsible for making sure no intruders get into the Bridge." She said, smile and all.

"I have too many questions." I said looking at the couple. Hera nodded and led me up the stairs to a table in the place she was working at, and she retook her seat where a laptop was. Alex sat directly across from her. I sat next to Hera in the table and Hera's Blissey took the seat across from me and next to Alex.

"First of all. Thank you all so much for taking me in." I turned to Hera. "I would be dead without all that you've done for me and your Blissey has been a big help too." The Blissey bounced in her seat, excitedly. Alex smiled and sat back in his chair observing the way I talked like he was testing me. Hera just smiled and looked at me, reminding me of the warm personality of my father, which made me feel uneasy.

"It was our pleasure. We take in anyone who doesn't have a home in either the Society or Galactic part of the Sinnoh Region. Our little headquarters underneath the Hearthome Forest is large, but it's all we have. We don't own a half of this region but we work with what we have." Alex said, never taking his eyes off me.

"Why is this place called the Bridge?" I asked looking at him. Hera looked at her boyfriend then looked out the window to look at some of the flying pokemon. Alex went into detail explaining the origins of the Bridge telling me that it was centered around those who didn't agree with the platforms of the Society and Team Galactic. It evolved into the Bridge when people began to realize that neither side provided protection to its citizens.

"Some people ended up fleeing from the Sinnoh Region altogether to avoid the war. More left when the war had started. This place became known as the Bridge because it's meant as a last resort for people like you, Aria. People that don't belong in either of the two sections of Sinnoh usually find a home in here because we are our own region, the third region of Sinnoh. It's a Bridge so that people may cross from the darkness and into the truth."

"So you guys are like another faction." I said looking from Alex to Hera.

"We don't like to think of ourselves as a faction. We believe every single person living in the Bridge has a voice, and there are seventeen leaders, one for each type of pokemon. Those leaders guide their followers in training against the two factions as well as the ins and outs to the Bridge so that they may protect it." Alex said looking from the window to me. I nodded my head at all this information and had never heard of this place in the news.

"But how come I've never heard of you guys before? When I was still in school I kept up with all the news regarding the war and I never recalled hearing about the Bridge." I said, my voice guiding into Alex's ears. He registered the information and I could see he almost laughed at my ignorance.

Hera picked up on this and took over the speaking. She kicked Alex from underneath the table with her shoes and he recoiled into himself. Hera looked to me and smiled again. "You see, Aria. The Bridge maintains a critical level of secrecy. We don't let anyone talk about the Bridge but that doesn't mean Team Galactic and the Society don't know about us."

"Oh they know about us." Alex interrupted, looking up at me. One look from Hera and he was silenced, returning to his daydreams to the window with the flying pokemon.

"The leaders of the two factions do know of us, and they think of us like another enemy. They believe we are aiding the other side, but after months of unsuccessful meetings and negotiations between the three of us, we decided it was best to keep our location a secret. That hasn't stopped both sides from searching all around Sinnoh for us, secretly. We once had a crisis where three Galactic Grunts found this place. We had to deal with them but Alex would never tell me happened to them." She looked at him sarcastically. He didn't budge from his position so she kicked him again and he flinched, looked at Hera who eyed him coldly and he turned to me.

"So Aria. Since you will be staying at the Bridge have you been introduced to the House system we practice here?"

"Yes she has. I gave her the book on all the houses we have to provide. You did read it didn't you Aria?" Hera looked at me and I nodded while maintaining a fake smile that fooled the two of them.

"Alright then, have you decided on a House?" Alex focused his attention on a woman who entered the room. I looked down at the woman who was busily pressing buttons on a clipboard and I further realized the board she was holding was a portable computer. This place had virtually everything I had dreamed of for the future. Alex stood up from his chair as Hera watched him descend the stairs and walked up to the woman. After Alex became hidden by the stairs, Hera leaned in and whispered into my ear.
"That's the Dragon leader, Margaret. She's supposed to be wicked on the battlefield but her role is to process all the information gathered on the two factions. You don't want to get on her bad side."

"So are you like the Psychic leader?" I asked her, while the Blissey looked down at the people talking below.

"Alex is the leader of the Psychic trainers. I'm his girlfriend so people just group us together. I'm unofficially a co-leader of the Psychic floor. But I'm more interested in which house you want to choose. Have you picked one yet." She held her bottom lip with her teeth like an excited child.

"I think I'm going with the Ghost House." I said unsure of myself. I didn't know a thing about any of the houses and it probably would've been better to align myself with these people but I've always felt closer to Ghost pokemon.

"You know you don't have to pick a House just because Rotom is a Ghost pokemon, right?" She looked at me uneasily. I couldn't tell if she wanted me to join the Psychic House but I felt sure of joining the Ghost trainers. A feeling of deep grief resurfaced in my chest as I remembered the moment I found out Dusknoir had passed. It brought my face down to a pale color and Hera looked at me funny.

"Aria you look like you're about to cry. What happened?" She said hugging me as I began sobbing. Alex and Margaret were still chatting down below and the other people working in the room were busy tending to their work. Blissey noticed I was crying and came up to the two of us and joined in on the hugging.

"Dusknoir was my friend. And they took him from me." I said as we hugged. When we broke, Hear wiped a tear from my face and said everything would be okay. She told me she would take me to the basement where the Chateau of Umbra could be found. This castle in the lowest floor of the Bridge, housed the Ghost pokemon and just a floor above, was the Dark floor. The Dark and Ghost leaders both lived in the Chateau and Hera told me to be careful around them.

"It's not that they're dangerous, they're just hard to please. The Ghost and Dark Houses both have the lowest and second to lowest population of the entire Bridge, respectively, you see." Hera then proceeded to tell me about the wonderful people I was bound to meet down in the shadowy abyss.

"Is my choice set in stone now, or?" I looked at her.

"Not exactly set in stone, it's just who you live with. You're more than welcome to come up here and hangout with me, but your family is with the House you decide on." I heard the automatic door close, and momentarily, Alex began ascending the stairs until he was met back with us. He didn't notice that I was crying and Hera's Blissey returned to her seat as Alex retook his.

"Aria wants to join with the Chateau of Umbra." Hera told him, ignoring that Alex had left their conversation and rejoined it abruptly. He nodded his head and looked at me like he worried for me.

"Are you sure she'll be able to handle it? We get the most rejections out of the Ghost and Dark Houses, Hera are you sure-" Alex stopped talking when the daggers emanating from Hera's eyes pierced his soul and he remained silent for the rest of the time I was there. I looked uneasily at Hera who tried to use her smile to settle me down.

"They can reject me?" I looked at the table and thought about where I could possibly go if I couldn't stay at the Bridge.

"Aria, I would standby you all the way, but if they did reject you, you would just have to join the Normal House and join the Bridge's personal army. This is all your option. We aren't keeping you here against your will. But everyone who stays in the safety of the Bridge has tasks they need to follow on. If you joined with the Chateau you would be trained in special operations missions." Hera said and overloaded my brain with all this information.

"Yeah, they don't mess around down there. If they don't think you're viable to them, they'll reject your request to stay in the Chateau. We don't really allow second picks unless its the army so I hope you do your best, sport." Alex said smiling at me and then looked at the window all while Hera rolled her eyes.

"Let's go Aria." Hera said rising from her chair. She told her Blissey to stay here and slap Alex for her while she took my hand, led us both down the stairs and out the automatic door. We walked together through the hallways and everything was so clean about the hallways, I appreciated that the people here maintained proper cleanliness.

"I believe that you'll get into the Chateau, I'll be supporting you all the way." She said, guiding me around sharp corners and through many hallways. If I was to live here it would take me forever to memorize the twists and turns of this floor. And there were seventeen floors... I just hoped I would make it into that Chateau. I would give anything to rip apart the Society for what they've done to me and avenge Dusknoir.

"Why are you so nice to me, Hera." I looked at her when she beckoned me into a lift. We stood together in the lift and she pressed the lowest button leading to the basement of the Bridge.

"Because you remind of myself when I first came to the Bridge." I looked at her in awe. "In fact, I came in pretty much the same way you did. I was born and raised in Snowpoint City. Living under Team Galactic wasn't easy when they demanded our devotion every single day. My parents couldn't stand the oppression of Team Galactic and the way they treated people who had opposing viewpoints. They started a committee to interpret the acts of Team Galactic. When it became very prominent, Team Galactic murdered my parents right as I walked through the door on my way home from school." I looked at her with my mouth dropped, not blinking.

"I'm so sorry, I feel terrible for-" I began but Hera raised her hand to stop me.

She began smiling again. "Don't worry about it. I'm mostly over it, but the pain never seems to go away no matter how many times I smile." She said pausing. Neither of us said a word for a few floors but I saw we were almost there, to the bottom of the Bridge.

"Anyway, your story touched me and when I found you it made the pain in my heart leave for a little when I knew there were other people in this world like me, who knew the truth." She explained, looking at me. "It takes a lot of pain to know the truth, but you can't live in this world unless you know pain like we do. Or you live blindly while terrible things are happening right under your nose." The door opened and we were enveloped in darkness. Lanterns lit with fire welcomed us when we stepped into the dimly lit floor.

"This is where you will find the Chateau of Umbra. Just keep walking down and you'll find the castle. Oh and you might want this." She said handing me a pokeball. I gripped it in my hands, as a smile emerged on my face.

"Is this?"

"It is." She smiled her warm, genuine smile. "Now go join them, for you, for me, for Rotom and for everyone you love. I believe in you Aria, you can do it!" She said as the elevator door closed. And it was just me, standing in the darkness with Rotom's pokeball in my hands. I heard the lift behind me ascend as I became a wanderer in the abyss of the Bridge.