A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 17: Over My Dead Body

When I was about six months old, Hadron Dallas was a fourth-year from the Faculty of Pokemon Science and Research at the Sinnoh University in Hearthome City. He was, for his time, one of the best students the university had ever enrolled; excelling in most of his classes with great ease. During this time, the war was in its primal phase and the era of technology was on the rise. It turned into a brief cold war to see which side could amass the best arsenal or technology over the other. It was at this time that the two sides became increasingly involved in the affairs of university students.

Hadron's capstone project was titled Ethical Analysis of Pokeballs: A Compendium of Reading Between the Lines, which had earned him the highest mark in the college. His beautifully crafted research was introduced to the Council of Science and Technology, to which they approved and orchestrated a study to conduct Hadron's research.

In his capstone, Hadron argued that Pokemon that were inside their pokeballs harbored angst and various forms of separation anxiety from their respective trainers. He was the first person to ever quantify the level of happiness of a pokemon while in a pokeball based on: the pokemon's gender, type, species, size, the trainer's gender and how long the pokemon had been inside the ball. All of this research was conducted while the pokemon was inside the ball and he never made any contact with it, a marvel in analytics. His overarching conclusion differentiated pokeballs as being more toxic to the pokemon's brain, than if the trainer was abusive, and the pokemon was never in the pokeball. That scenario is very unlikely, hypothesizing that an abusive trainer and extended periods of time in a pokeball caused severe depression in 85% of pokemon.

Funding for his research was donated to by the college and he was assigned a group of assistants and colleagues to further investigations. They secretly conducted numerous tests under Dallas's instruction, that inhibited pokemon happiness and forced depression on all specimens. Oh the irony. Fast forward a year and Dallas was indicted of abhorrent abuse of pokemon. His degree in Science and Research, stripped, funding for the capstone research ceased and his reputation was forever tarnished with depravity. You could say his life was destroyed. But that's not why he joined Team Galactic.

In the following years, depression, anxiety and malnourishment plagued his life to the brink of death. He was treated for anorexia and depression when I was about four years old. The nurses even had to restrain him, because he attempted to slit his wrists with needles on several occasions. He came close, pretty much bleeding out his entire left arm to the point of amputation being the final solution. His insanity was eventually cleansed in restrictive therapy until I was about six. This is where the misfortune ends. He began his own research into prosthetics, after finding an archaic article on stem cells. He concluded that acquiring human specimens, for his new research, would be difficult with one arm and he had no colleagues or friends for that matter. The only pokemon he could ever call his was a Ditto named Scanapy. He was always fascinated with how the Ditto were able to transform their cells into any pokemon at will. While conducting several, questionable experiments on Scanapy, Hadron realized that they had regenerative properties. After reconstructing his arm using reprogrammed, multifunctional Ditto cells, he began breeding Dittos in his apartment. It took him months to extract cells from Scanapy in order to use on himself, so he postulated ways to get cellular matter the fastest. He eventually settled on a paper shredder, which he modified to accommodate larger bodies.

This secret research, he shared with nobody and his perversion of Ditto's was discovered by none other than, Team Galactic. His newest discovery surpassed his capstone research and if his research had been analyzed in greater detail, it would have revolutionized the world. It's exactly why Team Galactic abducted him from his home, along with all of his research and forced him to work as their top medical scientist. The war was pretty heated at this time, with major casualties for both the Society and Team Galactic.

With Dallas's instruction, Solaceon's breeding facility was ransacked and enormous Ditto plantations were constructed. Millions of Ditto's were bred using synthetic breeding, then murdered, or as the Galactics called it, "fragmentation" of Ditto cells. Ditto cells were used in surgery to rejuvenate fallen soldiers by being easy to surgically install and having multifunctional properties. Failing organs could be repaired using the cells, they could be converted into blood or blood plasma and were excellent sources protein and many natural minerals. Hadron Dallas's suffering ultimately proved to be beneficial to namely, Team Galactic.

When I opened my eyes, the gun was frozen and it had some fingers attached to it on the ground. A Galactic Grunt had bled out from having fingers and much of his hand severed from his arm. His body was twisted into a very uncomfortable position, a leg bending where it shouldn't. His eyes glared into empty space; only when the body was taken away did it get to see more of the cavernous world. Several of his cohorts eventually found him in this state, appalled at the scene, more so at how he died than of the actual death. But the light in his eyes would die for a second time as flames would rip the cold flesh from his bones. The body's next destination was to the Burner. To solemnly feel that someone's destiny was to transcend into a heap of dust forced saline tears out of my eyes.

Froslass had pulled me away from the center of the arena, into an alley between houses away from the light, in the shadows. As I regained more and more consciousness, Froslass became less timid and floated back to me instead of being on my guard.

"Holy shit." She said to me.

I didn't respond. The words had escaped me. I was nothing.

"Evelyn, get up." Froslass flatly said. That name froze me in a different kind of way. Evelyn. My name. But not my name. My name is Aria, but I guess it doesn't matter what my name is at this point. I blinked, then sat up against the dirty, brown wall of a house.

"How do you even know my name? I don't seem to remember telling you."

"I remember hearing it. Back on Mt. Coronet. Your friend with the Flygon called for you, as I…" She hesitated. " Fired Ice Beams at him."

I sighed. Then, as I tried to stand up, I moved my mangled arm the wrong way and it shot immense pain up my arm. I yelped to which Froslass began frantically flying around, making sure nobody was around. I looked over to see her peer behind a wall at the area, where I was almost killed.

"What's happening?" I whispered.

"Well, the other Galactics found the bodies. They're disposing of them now."

"We must leave this place." I muttered.

"You're in no condition to be moving, I should've just moved you into a house when I had the chance." She retorted without turning around to look at me, only focusing on the threats carrying away two corpses from the field.

"Can you try standing again? I can't leave you here." She said turning around to face me.

I attempted to use my knees and core muscles to lift myself without using either of my hands. I was feeble and fatigued. Anymore physical or emotional stress and I think I'm just going to drop dead.

"There." I huffed, leaning against the side of the house. I clutched my broken arm in the most comfortable position, so as to avoid movement, but walking around just made it hurt even more.

"The sooner we get out of here, the sooner you get that fixed." She pointed to my arm. Froslass and I hid and ran cyclically, keeping the Galactic Grunts in sight. The entire city was mining, yet we still managed to see people wheeling precious stones in carts over to a part of the cave where I assumed they would go to be processed. There were two little boys pushing a single cart, together. It was filled to the top with heavy stones and they were unable to continue pushing it, due to mud trapping the wheels. My vision of them was lost for a time as we weaved around houses, but I was always looking back to see how their predicament would be resolved. My last, clear sighting of the two boys, was in confrontation with a Galactic Grunt and his shotgun. Then a bang, followed by a piercing scream and I just blinked when the shotgun went off.

"This way." Froslass took a sharp corner, following the Grunts. Then the same shotgun went off. We had reached the other side of the cave, away from the ice slide I had descended on, away from the southern mine where I almost toppled to my death, away from the field of torture and melancholy, but the smell. I would never forget the smell of this dirty place. Its smell was far more pungent than that of two freshly dead bodies.

Froslass and I became the shadow of a collection of Grunts, tailing them until they went through metallic doors that operated automatically. The change from dirty mounds to metallic flooring wasn't as assuring as I had hoped. I kept looking back; hopefully I would see someone I could turn to for help. My hopelessness didn't hit me full force, until I was actually reunited with the surface.

"Follow me, let's go." Froslass would say if I was straggling. We continued following them deeper into their base, searching for an elevator or something that went up, yet nothing was in sight. I was beginning to think we made a grave mistake wandering into this section of the cave. But Froslass pursued them with greater conviction than I. She fought hard to ensure my survival. She had fire in her eyes when my flame dwindled. Her motivation to protect me like I was her child was startling. She buried her own child. We turned a corner.

Walking through this hallway made me think of one of those slasher flicks. The one with a serial murderer wearing the flesh of a previous kill. But in this circumstance I didn't know who the killer was. I just knew that he was everywhere. He was hiding in the walls of this complex. He was at the field when a woman was brutally murdered. He was metal composing the chairs and tables in all the rooms of this establishment. I couldn't figure out who he was, but I knew he was out there, waiting to sink his fangs into my flesh.

"You need to remove these senseless thoughts from your head." Froslass turned to face me, then continued gliding through the air. I stopped mid-thought. You can read my mind, too? I thought.

"Sometimes." She turned around. "But now's not the time, we need to keep pressing."

By now the strange area we were in became that of an office building. The hallways became narrow, the metal floor became ceramic. The flickering lights only added to the ancient atmosphere of this place. How long have people been living like this?

"Let's not stick around to find out." Froslass said out loud. We pressed on. The Grunts up ahead were chatting like nothing was amiss. Like they were used to so much death all at once. They turned a corner marked "Burner," when Froslass pulled me into a dark office and we watched them pass. I had never realized there were signs in this place.

"We're not following them, we need to get to that loading dock." Froslass looked at me.

"How do you know there's a loading dock?"

"There must be one." She hesitated. "There has to be." Slight pause. "How else would they get their materials from the surface?" I nodded and she tugged on my shirt to signal we were going to have to move again. The throbbing in my arm only subsides when I don't move. What a dilemma. As we ran out of the room, the shuffling of feet caught the attention of a Grunt in a nearby room.

"Who's there?" He proclaimed, then walked only to get frozen solid by an Ice Beam. He dropped to the ground, cold and limp.

"Did you kill him?" I asked Froslass, incredulously at her instinct to attack humans.

"Let's hope I did, these monsters must be eradicated." She replied and I sighed. Froslass was kind to me like a mother, yet also fierce like a warrior. She guided me through the halls and we passed the fork where the Grunts had trekked. Instead, we continued going straight to a sign marked "North Wing."

"Why are we going this way?"

"Because I'm looking for a stinking lift."

"This sucks." I huffed.

"Just hold on." She said without looking back at me. My pace quickened as the pain in my arm started getting worse. I followed her until we reached a corner, turned abruptly and were met with another hallway of rooms. None of which were marked or signified as to what was in them. They just had numbers next to each door: 201, 203, 205. On the other side where the even numbers.

"Do you think the 2's on the doors mean second floor?"

"You might be right, Evelyn. But let's see if we can find a lift." I was beginning to think there wasn't one around. What if the Grunts that live here were buried here, too. It would make sense. Team Galactic is ruthless, even to their own kind. My heartbeat intensified, we were wandering around this foreign territory, no clue where we are and nobody knows we're here. If I died down here, nobody would find me.

In any dire situation, my mind always comes to my Dad. Instead of thinking about my own well being, I think of his. I think it's just my brain realizing its own doom and trying to cope by sympathizing, mainly with Dad. I mean I'm kind of stuck down here, because I'm trying to reunite with him. I always think about how he's doing. Is he enduring the same pain I am? The obvious answer is he's not. We live an ordinary life. Twinleaf is well-cushioned in Society Sinnoh that the war doesn't usually extend there. Living in Oreburgh must be living in a recurring nightmare. But my father is not easily read. He's always enduring pain, but unlike mine it's emotional and can't be fixed with a plaster cast. His eternal love and my mother were killed the same night I entered this world. I'm his blessing and constant reminder of her death. I caused my mother to die. I'm just like these Grunts; I'm a murderer. Why shouldn't I be thrown into a Burner for my sins? Why did an innocent Ghost Pokemon have to die on my watch? I still have nightmares about Dusknoir. I have not forgotten, nor will forget his existence for as long as I live. I weep at his demise. I weep for my father. Maybe this tomb was meant to punish me for my destructive force. I always seem to wrong, when I want to right. I always destroy when I mean to create. My presence only brings stress. I'm symbolic to the war in my world. Either side would like to see me dead. I'm just a bridge for them to cross to slit each other's throats after they slit mine. Why bother trying to run anymore. I'm so tired. I just want the pain to stop. Where are we going? Why am I still alive?

Froslass shook me awake, trying to pull me up. I guess I tripped and blacked out momentarily. I didn't even realize what was happening, because I was so distraught and fatigued. I didn't see any reason to keep running. I was so tired of running. Ever since I left on this forsaking journey I've been running. Running away from my Dad? My mom? I ran away from my life and my punishment is to live a life of destruction.

Froslass looked at me gloomily. "We're almost there." The hallway ended. Dead end. The only door marked said "basement" and Froslass tugged on me, as I dragged my almost-lifeless body into the dark door. We began walking down flights of stairs into hell and each step sent a dull, discomforting feeling through my arm. I would've preferred it to be cut off at this point. At the bottom of this new abyss, there were crates and crates everywhere. Each wooden, dusty crate marked with a number. I tried nudging the top of the crate, but it was sealed shut and I was met with a rather disarming stench. I looked back at Froslass to see her eyes widened alarmingly, and her body was frozen mid-air, as if she were standing atop a table.

"Oh my god." Froslass said. Then she threw up, all over the floor. She knelt on her knees and just threw up everywhere. Again and again.

"Shit, Froslass what's wrong." I patted her icy back, cooling my hand at the expense of discomforting my damaged arm.

"There are…" She sighed, then hesitated. "Pokemon in these crates. And they're suffering immensely. Their thoughts resonate in my head like pointed bullets piercing soft flesh. It's disgusting. I can't take it. We need to get out of here." She groaned.

"Can you open these crates? We should help them if their trapped." I said promptly. She held out her hand to the closest crate, froze the side of it and using ghostly energy it shattered into hundreds of pieces. I peered inside the crate, and the disarming odor filled my nostrils. Then it was my turn to vomit. My eyes began to tear up from the stench as I puked all over my shoes.

"Oh my god. I can't." My knees became weak, I took a few steps and my knees collapsed away from the opened crate. Inside was a Nidoqueen curled up in a corner, rotting, covered in feces and urine. She wasn't the usual blue color my poketch would have visualized her to be. Instead her skin was a discolored darkish green. It was mortifying to watch death unfurl right before your eyes.

"And some of them are still alive?" I looked at Froslass. She nodded.

"There are less voices thinking, than crates in this place. Far less voices. They wish to die." Froslass continued. "They've been down here for months." She vomited again almost inducing me to vomit again.

"We need to help them, find one that's still alive and we'll save at least one. Please." I started tearing up. I've experienced such sympathy for anything in my short life. The extensive suffering these pokemon were subjected to made us so physically sick. I've never seen an uglier place, until I stumbled into this basement. Froslass approached a crate near the Nidoqueen and shook her head, a single tear streaming from her face. This was the first time I had seen her weep. She floated over to another box, trying to sense a life inside of it. She shook her head again.

"They're going to pay," I started bawling. "How could they ever allow pokemon to live under such vile conditions!" I yelled.

"Evelyn, you need to keep your voice down."

"This is too nauseating for me." I dragged myself over to a crate and sat with my back against the rough wood. I stared into the darkness that continued through this basement, wondering how many corpses were decomposing in these wooden crates. All of these wasted lives would never see sunlight, never find affection from a trainer nor get experience from battling other pokemon. No. They were doomed to rot in these boxes hundreds of feet beneath the surface, unbeknownst to everyone, including myself. I tried understanding the gravity of this situation, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt disgusted with myself living life without the knowledge that these pokemon have been down here, suffering for months. I unfairly took life for granted. Their final solace was their freedom, their own deaths painted liberty from their captive crates. They couldn't even use their attacks to break free from the boxes. How weak were they? They must have been beaten or something, maybe worn out from excessive battling in order to be unable to use any of their knowledge to free themselves from these prisons. I sat against the wood shaming myself for these pokemon, when I knew it wasn't my fault. Their pain only made me think about my near-death at the hands of the Society. That was when my sympathy transcended into empathy. That was also when a shadowy figure emerged in the doorway.

"Hey! Who let you in here?" A Galactic Grunt appeared in the doorway pointing a loaded gun at Froslass. "How'd that pokemon get out?" He demanded.

Froslass lifted her hand off the ground and held her palm out in the direction of the weapon. It immediately froze and the Grunt dropped it, shattering into tiny fragments. The bits fell all around the hallway and some glistened down the stairs, slowly melting into water.

"You bitch!" The Grunt said running down the stairs. Froslass fired off another Ice Beam, but this Grunt foresaw this and hurled his body to the side, clinging onto a wooden crate, then threw himself onto Froslass. The two bodies squirmed, her soft, cold body was not meant to wrestle with a human's.

"Get off of her!" I screamed. As they were fumbling, I tried standing up, knees wobbly. The Grunt was beating Froslass's tender body with his fists; I heard her screams of agony. I gritted my teeth against the tears streaking my cheeks and pushed with what little energy my body had towards the two other bodies. The sound of her struggling forced my knees to give out. I collapsed, hitting the floor hard and sobbing incessantly. I watched helplessly, as the Grunt punched Froslass square in the jaw, coating the ground around them with a fresh stripe of blood. She spat blood on the ground and weakly got up to continue fighting.

"Bitch, I'll kill you!" The Grunt said lunging at her weakened body. She weakly held her palm up and created a gust of wind. Except the wind was murky and smelled rotten. The Grunt hacked in the repulsive air as Froslass used more energy to force the Grunt back, further into this room. He fell to his knees, and vomited all over the floor. Then his knees gave out and his body joined the floor where had just relieved himself of his previous meals. This putrid scene only helped fuel his rage. Froslass lost control of her attack and the gas dissipated.

The Grunt didn't say anything. He glared at Froslass with murderous eyes and then he charged. He sped past wooden crates with mostly dead pokemon in them as so many things were spiraling through my head that I didn't even think about the pain at this moment. I knew I had to protect Froslass. She was recovering from the substantial bodily injury he caused her. He thrust all his bodily force into one leap that would crush Froslass between a crate, but not before I placed my own body in front of his. We collided with unproportional force. He fell where he hit me and my body was thrown a few feet before Froslass. I didn't understand what pain truly was until my body lay there on the cold floor, broken in more ways than I could possibly imagine. Paralysis discouraged any movement from my limbs and I stared off into the black, tears and all. A dull ring echoed through the room and reverberated in my eardrums. I heard thuds amid the ringing, but couldn't turn my body around to see what was happening. I saw my Dad's corpse lying in front of me, across the dim room. The tears flowed faster and became wetter on my face. I saw Rotom lying across from me, not moving, his electric shoulders twisted in unnatural ways. I saw Veronica, Daniel and Medgar. Their bodies littered the floor, eyes devoid of life. I didn't understand what sort of higher power would subject his beautiful creations to end up in such decay.

"Evelyn." I heard a voice I assumed to belong to Froslass. "Get up." I heard several more dull thuds; Froslass was coughing wretchedly. She helped me more than I helped her. I couldn't walk very much at all. One of my legs was now broken. The pain gradually became a dullness of its own, overtaking my mind. All I could do was await death like the trapped pokemon. Froslass sensed my hopelessness and started dragging my body further into the room. As she dragged me away my eyes saw a man lying on the ground in a pool of crimson, a sharp slice of wood piercing his heart. This body affected me most of all. The calmness it had, I yearned for. The stationary position, I envied.

I heard Froslass open another door inside of this basement and she slowly dragged my lifeless body through it, shutting it promptly. I wasn't aware until much later, that nobody had found the Grunts body until it was a steaming mess on the floor, forever marking the room in its smell.

"You're gonna be okay… Evelyn… I'm going to… get you… out of here." Froslass huffed as she dragged me by my filthy shirt. I was in so much pain at this moment, but there were no more tears streaking my cheek. I had depleted them all back in that room. Everyone that mattered most to me in there had expended my tears. This new room didn't have the repugnant smell and was replaced instead by an archaic, fossilized smell. I saw rusted, corroding vehicles in this room which I postulated were the medium that transported the pokemon in the next room. Froslass abandoned my limp body for a few moments to inspect the room, frantically. She theorized that Galactic reinforcements would arrive any moment and slaughter us both down here where nobody could hear our screams. I couldn't see her face, but Froslass was bleeding from her mouth onto the floor and drops of blood that weren't mine wetted my foot, the one that wasn't already broken. I was mute. Nothing told my vocal cords to utter a sound. I didn't have anything to say anymore.

Froslass managed to open a hatch in the room, revealing nothing to me but a flickering, buzzing noise. I could hear Froslass weeping. She continued dragging me, closer and closer to this strange buzzing part of the room. If my neck wasn't bruised from the impact, I would've turned it to see what was going on.

"Evelyn... " Froslass huffed and appeared before me. Her face was dark in some areas, red in others, but the only feature that I could make out was the tears. They weren't sad, hopeless tears anymore. They glistened as they fell from her face and splashed on the ground. She was happy about something at this moment.

"I found the lift." She let out a stifled giggle amongst the sobs. I just stared blankly into her face.

"It's a chute for delivering crates from the surface, but I can't lift you into it." She said, her voice dropping. I saw some of those tears fall down and become sad, sullen tears yet again.

I roughly moved my neck so my jaw was in line with the chute. It didn't hurt as much as my leg or my arm, but this pain was still unpleasant. It was more of a stinging feeling than dull. I was so afraid of the dulling pain, because it was gradually diminishing and I thought sweet death was finally upon me, when in reality it was Froslass blowing cool air onto my bizarrely twisted leg. She was blowing the cool air from inside the chute.

"Evelyn." She whispered. "Please try to get in here."

"Who are you whispering from?" I said flatly. "If someone was in here they would have already seen you dragging me across the floor."

"Please just get in here. We're so close. I refuse to die this close to the end."

"But that's just it. We're at the end of the line. How do you know that thing you're sitting in isn't just going to spit us back out into that cave for all we know." I continued speaking flatly, absent of any and all feeling.

"I'm at least willing to take that risk. If it means getting away from this place. I would rather be anywhere." Her voice cracked as her eyes began to expel tears. "I would rather bury my dead child, than have to relive what we had to endure in this shithole." She sobbed in the box, as I just stared at her. No tears emerged from my eyes, which frightened me a little, but not enough to motivate me to get into that box with her.

"Is that what you were doing on Mt. Coronet?" I asked.

She sniffled. "Yes." She nodded her head, then stopped because the movement instigated the pain caused by getting clocked in the face. "Do you have any idea what it's like putting someone you brought into this world into a hole in the earth? I do." She bit her lip.

"I had to sit and watch, because I couldn't just go to a pokemon center and ask for help. There's nothing they could do." Her voice became stable at the second sentence.

"I never knew my mother." I said flatly. "She died giving birth to me. It's just me and my Dad living at home. Everything was calm until I decided to leave." My voice cracked on that word. 'Leave.'

"I'm sure my Dad was relieved that I was gone." My voice changed abruptly, almost sounding like a sarcastic chuckle. Pause. "Then I wouldn't be there to spite him anymore." My voice started breaking and salty wetness, again, resumed its place in my tear ducts.

"I don't believe that." Froslass said gently.

"It's because I'm the piece of shit that murdered his wife. I'm a constant fucking reminder that she's dead and she's not coming back. I took away his ability to love and make love. He's never going to look at a woman the same way he probably looked at my mother. He would always smile and laugh with me, but I could see through his fake happiness and resolve. You know how long I've been waiting for this moment? That was what he said to me when I told him I was leaving. I saw into what was really inside my Dad. The sadness. The pain. It's all my fault." I forced my eyes shut, clenching my mouth as sobs resonated from my lungs and echoed in this room.

"Evelyn, please just come in here and -"

"Stop calling me Evelyn. That's not even my name." I interrupted Froslass. I turned away from her as she was sitting in the chute, watching me, crying to herself. She didn't respond after my interruption. I immediately felt selfish, instead of empathizing with Froslass over the grief of losing her child, my empathy had transformed into apathy. I imagined her body leaning against the side of the chute, she could easily push some button that I didn't know about and lift herself away from this cemetery. But she hasn't left yet.

"I'm s-sorry." She managed to say between sobs.

"Evelyn is my mom's name. Vance and Drayke call me that just to fool the Grunts and Society Police into thinking I was someone who I'm definitely not. Whenever somebody calls me that it flashes in my skull. It's a wake-up call. I chose that name for myself because I need to pay for my sin." I swallowed bitterly. "I'm the murderer that sinks his fangs into unsuspecting flesh in everybody's nightmares." There was a long pause. I was hiccuping as I weeped over this darkness that surrounded my entire existence. This cave was the light force that awakened the everlasting darkness I had bottled up for nineteen years.

"Tell me your real name then," Froslass said gently, with a flame in her voice that never seemed to leave. It was always present within her whenever she fought for something.

"Aria."

"It's nice to finally meet you," She said sniffling. "I'm sorry."

"For what." I said also sniffling.

"I'm s-sorry for almost killing you on Mt. Coronet. I didn't know you and you didn't know me. I was just so overcome with anger and hatred of humans, I just," Pause. "Let my hopelessness administer my actions. I just wish-"

"Froslass." I said out loud, interrupting her mid sentence again.

"Yes, Aria?" She didn't seem to care.

"I want you to forgive me." I said stifling, huffing my words. Froslass gasped and didn't finish her sentence. She was completely caught off guard.

"But you didn't do anything to hurt me." I started struggling on the ground, trying to move and it was indeed painful. With a broken arm and a broken leg any person would have zero motivation to do anything.

"I want you to forgive me…" I gritted my teeth when my arm stung as I moved it the wrong way. "...For giving up in here." Then my leg shot pains up my spine and into my brain as I pressed forward, crawling closer to the chute Froslass was sitting in.

"Of course, Aria. We're in this shit together." She said, attempting a smile, but unable to force one. I reached for the ledge of the chute with my good arm, while my mangled arm was lying limply on the cold ground and I took notice of it when it didn't feel the sensation of temperature. I took hold of the ledge and pulled at maximum capacity to get as much of me into the chute as possible, when in reality the force was too great and the pain was too immense and I dropped to the ground, slamming my face into the cold, dirty floor.

"It's okay, Aria let me help you."

"I can't do it." I started sobbing in pain and frustration. "I can't get in there with you." Froslass gasped again when I said this. "You have to go without me and bring help back down." I couldn't see, but Froslass was sitting in the box, shaking her head no.

"Aria. After what we've been through. I am not-" She huffed, I conjectured she wiped tears from her face. Then she started again. "I am not leaving you down here by yourself in your condition." I looked up from my position on the ground to see Froslass extend a hand to me. I gripped her icy hand and she pulled on me with her icy, ghostly might. She surprised me in her strength, managing to pull me up to the chute. My mangled arm rested in her soft, cold hands while my free arm felt around for something to hold on to. I let out a huge wad of air and huffed.

"I can't do it!" I screamed. "It hurts so bad." My screams were absorbed by the rotting trucks inside the metallic room. Froslass tried desperately to cushion my bad arm to generate as much comfort as possible for my transition. I could feel the flame emanating from her body as she caressed my arm. I used my abdominal muscles to try and force my way into the chute, yet in the end it was just senseless hobbling of the knees, which hurt by the way. I tried reaching for some imaginary handle that wasn't there and toppled backwards, Froslass had released my arm bumping it onto the ledge. This pain was the most excruciating. I let out a shriek so terrifying, Froslass shook in the chute.

"Everything hurts!" I yelled, sobbing again. This pain I felt, particularly in my arm was immense, enough for two lifetimes, yet I still wasn't done enduring. Froslass looked around outside of the chute to see if anything around could be used to lift my trainwreck body into the chute with little effort. Nothing. She bit her lip at the surfacing of more hopelessness.

"We can't give up. We have to keep trying. If you can just get in here, we can get you medical attention." Froslass implored. She extended her hand out again. I sat up in a straddle position and gripped her arm with my good arm. My bad arm was just dangling on the side as dead weight.

"I'm gonna pull you up and you're going to push up and up and up until you can stand on your good leg. That's the plan." She said with conviction flooding from her voice. My body absorbed some of this conviction as I bought into her plan. She planted herself on the bottom of the chute and pushed back, pulling my arm ever closer into it.

Froslass has given up so much for me, I know it's a cliche, but without her I never would've made it out of there alive. She was well-anchored in the chute and I began lifting my body weight onto my good leg. It was happenstance that both my right arm and right leg were the broken limbs, so I had to force all my weight into my left leg. I got onto my left knee, then the metallic floor began sharply digging into it.

"Come on Aria push!" Froslass said, pulling my arm further into the chute until my palm touched the cool inside. A thought came into my mind.

"Do it!" Froslass shouted.

Then I lifted off my knee with every bit of strength and conviction I had left. It wasn't enough to fully bring me inside the box, but now both arms and my broken leg were inside the chute.

"Here let me get out so you can get comfortable." Froslass said vacating the metallic box, allowing me unbound access into a very bound area. At first it was unbearable to have my leg adjust to the constraint of a small box, but I forced the pain to wait until we were on the surface. My arm hung at my side, limp with no feeling. Froslass hopped into the chute with no effort, then she fumbled around for a button she had seen earlier and pressed it. The machine instantly came to life activating a small light at the top of the box which shone down me. Froslass had situated herself in my lap as the machine whirred and started lifting us up somewhere.

"I can't believe we're going up now." Froslass said, excitedly. I frowned. The rate at which we were going up was very slow.

"Get comfortable, it's going to be a long way up." The light eventually flickered off, indicating its function as a source of light for positioning crates. Froslass and I just sat in the darkened chute as the last glimpse of the room we were just in came out of view encapsulating us in a complete darkness. I smiled to myself for the first time since I can remember. I don't think I felt this relaxed since we had been down here. I also felt very vulnerable. We didn't know where this chute was taking us. It might be going up to another level on this Galactic base or to some Galactic-owned building on the surface.

"When we get up to wherever, let me out first. I'll do a primary scan until I'm absolutely sure it's safe." Froslass said calmly, I could feel her eyes on me.

"Thank you." I whispered in the dark.
No response. I smiled, shut my eyes and remained absolutely silent for the remainder of the ride.