Reya awoke to red lights and the distressed clicking of her two guards. Had she finally gone delusional? Memories of her horrific experience still lingered, fresh in her mind. She began to sob, her head cradled in arms as she shivered where she sat. Phantom pain lingered and her sobs turned into whimpers.
Her two captors continued their conversation. A sudden noise alerted them, and they turned towards the source. The door opened and the closest one was immediately fired upon, taking three shots to its chest. It fell to the ground, sizzling as it melted.
The remaining gru’ul raised its gun and fired blindly out of the room, hoping to hit whatever lay beyond. After several seconds of silence, it wondered if it had been successful.
A small, shiny object bounced off the floor, rolling to a stop inside the room. A brilliant flash of light exploded from it, blinding Reya and the gru’ul. A figure clad in black stormed in, searching for threats. It spotted the incapacitated alien and opened fired, vaporizing its shoulder and part of its head. The figure only stopped shooting once the body hit the ground.
Lowering its gun apprehensively, the figure approached the person seated at the table. “Reya?” came a feminine voice. It was Rann.
“Rann,” Reya sobbed, lifting her head to see, half blind from the flashbang. She didn’t care if it was a delusion as she held on to the sentiment of hope for dear life. The real Rann cradled her in her arms, taking in the state of the room, horrified by what she saw. “I’ll listen,” Reya sniffed. “I’ll listen,” she choked out.
“Guys! I’ve found her! Get over here, now,” Rann shouted into her comms. The sound of heavy boots approaching echoed down the empty halls outside of the room.
“Not again, please not again,” Reya whispered with stark terror in her voice. “Don’t make me do it again,” she begged, choking out the words.
Rann took in the sight of her beloved friend in horror as she held her. It was hard to tell in the lighting, but Rann could make out blood stained all over Reya’s upper body and legs. There was a lot of blood. Rann held Reya tighter. “Shh,” she whispered soothingly. “It’ll be ok. We’re here now and we’re not leaving you behind. Not again,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
“Not again, not again,” Reya rocked between sobs. “I’ll listen, just not again.” Reya cried freely, her tears leaving streaks down her grime-filled face. Rann didn’t know what she was talking about. It broke her heart to see her friend this way.
Eimir was the first to arrive. “You found her!” he exclaimed. “Come on, let’s go,” he urged.
“We can’t, her arms are stuck to the table in those cuffs. Do you have your multi-tool on you? Cut her free. I’m a little busy.” She turned her attention back to Reya and stroked her hair while Eimir got to work.
He hunched over the cuffs, inspecting them. “I’m afraid I might hurt Reya if I try to cut her free.”
“We don’t have time for another option. We need to get her out of here and to Kell as fast as possible.”
“Alright, fine. Reya, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m sorry if this hurts.” He carefully cut into the first cuff using his tool. When he got close to Reya’s skin, he went as carefully as he could, wincing when he nicked her, causing her to bleed slightly. “Shit, I’m sorry, Reya.”
“She’s not responding, Eimir. I think she passed out. Hurry up,” Rann urged.
Eimir made a second incision on the other side of the cuff and removed the top after he cut it free. He grabbed her thin wrist and lifted it out of the restraint. He repeated the procedure for the second cuff and soon Reya was free.
The others arrived in the meantime, taking stock of the situation. Rann turned to Eimir, who was closest, and instructed him to pick up Reya. “We’ll protect you while we bring her back,” she said.
“I can carry her,” Jyn offered.
“Don’t worry about it, Jyn,” Rann replied, her attention still on Reya. “Focus on keeping her alive so that we actually make it to the ship.”
Jyn nodded. Eimir lifted Reya, concerned at how easy it was to pick her up. “She’s too light,” he commented. “We need to hurry.” Jyn and Beor took up a vanguard position while Rann took the rearguard, with Eimir and Reya in the middle.
“Tassie, are you there?” Jyn asked.
“I’m here,” came her voice.
“I need you to find us the shortest way back to our bikes. We’ve found Reya.”
“I heard. Go down the hall and turn right,” she instructed.
The team focused on Tassie’s voice as they raced back to their bikes.
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Back on the ship, Tassie split her focus between guiding the others and piloting. She needed to get the ship back in position in order to pick them up. They were relying on her, and she couldn’t afford to let them down. Not this time. She turned wide and made straight for the base, the mountainside blurring by as she hugged it. She slowed down and lowered the ship as close to the broken hangar doors as she could.
“Incoming, fast! Hurry up and get ready to board; we don’t have much time!” Tassie shouted into her comms. She brought the ship to a near stop and pivoted, turning the back of the ship where the hatch was located to face the hole in the door.
Meanwhile in the ravaged hangar, Rann jumped onto her bike. Eimir carefully draped Reya over her. Rann snaked one arm around Reya’s waist, securing her in place. Without a word, she carefully took off and started going back to the ship. The others hopped on their bikes and formed a protective ring around Rann, who couldn’t go very fast for fear of dropping Reya.
Tassie waited until the last possible moment before dropping the shields to let them through. When the last of her team passed through the threshold, she reactivated the shields, a turret shot from the mountain rocking them right after they snapped into place around the ship.
Rann arrived on the ship first and immediately turned off her bike. She dismounted and grabbed Reya. Eimir was right, Reya was too light. “Kell,” she screamed over her comms, “we need you. Reya needs medical treatment, now! I’m bringing her up to the med bay.” She took off running while the others dismounted their bikes.
“On it,” Kell replied over the comms.
Everybody jerked when the ship suddenly accelerated as Tassie flew away from the facility. Beor groaned as he got off his bike and removed his helmet. He clutched his ribs with his good arm. “Glad to see she cares about me,” Beor said as he looked at his shoulder where he’d been shot.
“She knows you’re fine. As fine as someone can be when they survive what you did,” Jyn replied as he took his helmet off. “Reya’s clearly not fine. I don’t think this is a you-versus-her issue.”
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“I know,” Beor sighed. “Still stings a bit though.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it. Let’s get you to the med bay, too.”
Eimir joined them and they made their way over to the med bay. They arrived to find a worried Rann fussing over a blood-stained Reya. Her arms, legs, face, back and torso were covered in red and grime. Looking at her in the light, they could see how thin she’d gotten from her time away. Her scars remained hidden by the dried blood that coated her. She lay atop Kell’s operating table, a place they’d all been at one point or another.
“What’s wrong with her, Kell? Why isn’t she waking up?” Rann asked, the worry evident in her voice. Her eyes roved over Reya’s exposed body, taking in as much detail as she could. She watched as Kell took care of the large gash in her back.
“I suspect she’ll need more blood,” he muttered to himself. “She looks malnourished too. I don’t like that.”
“Babe! Are you ok?” Rann winced when she saw the state of Beor’s arm. “I’m sorry, I should have checked on you to make sure you were alright.”
“It’s fine.” Beor lied smoothly. “I understand your need to rush Reya up here first. At least I can still walk.” He shrugged. “Hey, doc,” he drawled as he sat down on a free bed, “I’m gonna need some stichin’.”
“I’ll be right with you, Beor,” Kell replied.
Kell looked up and saw the worried faces of his teammates. “I can’t work properly with all of you hovering around me. Get out so I can do my job. That’s an order,” he said sternly.
Without protest, Rann, Eimir and Jyn left the room. Kell worked hard to stabilize Reya, who was very weak. His diagnostics of her condition didn’t turn up so well. He looked over to Beor once he could afford to, who was patiently waiting on the bed. “Let’s have a look at you,” he said as he walked up next to Beor. “What happened?” he asked.
“Broke some ribs and took a plasma shot to the arm. Suit blocked most of it.”
“But not all of it, right? Show me your arm,” Kell instructed. He took a look at the cauterized wound. “I can fix it, but it’s going to leave a scar.”
“Do what you need to do,” Beor said firmly.
Kell nodded and got to work, patching Beor up the best he could while simultaneously taking care of Reya. Once Beor was good to go, Kell offered him a bed to rest in, but was declined. Beor left the med bay and Kell turned his attention back to Reya.
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“She’s lost a lot of weight,” Kell explained in the low lighting of the med bay. Tassie and Rann had come as soon as Kell told them they could. They watched their emaciated friend laying on the bed in front of them. She was dressed in a plain white hospital gown with an IV tube attached to her arm. “It looks like she’s barely eaten any food over the last month. Just enough to stop her from starving to death. She also appears to have trace amounts of something I can’t identify in her bloodstream. It doesn’t seem to be doing her any harm, so I’m leaving it alone for now.”
Tassie reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand. “And these?” she asked softly, running a finger along the few scars that she could see.
“I don’t rightly know what caused those. It looks like there was some kind of rapid healing involved, which might explain why she’s so thin. The body can’t just magically put itself back together. It needs resources for that. It’s possible her body cannibalized itself to do so.”
“How many are there?” Rann asked with a strained voice, staring at the scars.
Kell hesitated. “One hundred and seventeen, if you count the big one on her back, since it’s going to scar,” he said finally. “I can’t give her anything to speed up the healing. She’s too weak to handle it.”
Rann choked out a sob. “So many,” she said in shock and disbelief. Next to her, Tassie started crying.
“I left her there,” Tassie said between tears. “I left her there to this. I’m a horrible friend,” she sobbed. Rann collected her in a hug, tears trailing down her face. For a moment they stood there, each one grieving over the atrocities that had happened to their friend. Neither one said a word for a long while.
“It’s not your fault,” Rann spoke up. “We thought she was dead. We all left her behind.” She sniffed.
“We should’ve stayed. We should’ve looked for her body,” Tassie said.
“That’s enough out of you. You know that we needed to leave when we did. There was no going back for us once we retreated,” Rann affirmed. She looked over to Kell and asked, “Is that all?”
Kell made a bitter face. “No,” he said bluntly. “She’s got several broken ribs on her left side. I managed to set them properly, so they’ll heal just fine. She’s also got some pretty severe bruising around the damaged ribs. Whatever it was hit her hard. Repeatedly. Her right side only has fractures, but also contains severe bruising.”
Both Rann and Tassie blanched. Kell continued “She’s also got a fractured cheekbone and a scar to go with it. Luckily it’s not a very big scar, but it’s still on her face. The areas around her wrists were also rubbed raw. I’m not sure if that will scar or not. Probably, to some extent.”
Tassie started crying even harder, sitting down on one of the chairs next to the bed before her knees gave out. Rann let Tassie go as she sank into the chair. “Is that all?” She was almost afraid to find out.
“Mercifully, yes. I also gave her some painkillers, just to be on the safe side. She woke up screaming at one point while I was treating her and wouldn’t stop until I knocked her out. I put her in a coma for now so that her body can recover properly, but I’m not entirely certain when, or if, she’ll wake up. I’m not sure how much longer she would have lasted if you hadn’t brought her to me when you did.”
Concern and relief warred inside Rann. She looked at her friend again. Her normally fair purple skin was far too pale for her liking, and her wrists were too thin. She took in Reya’s sunken cheeks and eyes as she slept peacefully, free from pain for the first time in over a month. Her hair was frail and brittle, its luster gone from neglect. She took a deep breath. “Thank you for taking care of her, Kell,” she said honestly.
“Anytime, Rann. It also just so happens to be my job,” he said with a tired wink. Rann noticed the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. The day’s excitement had taken its toll on him.
“You did a good job, Kell. Now go get some rest,” Rann said softly.
“I’ll be sleeping here tonight in case anything happens. Once everybody’s gone, I’ll retire for the night.” He cast a sidelong glance towards Tassie, who was still holding Reya’s hand. “Not sure when that will be, but the intention is there.”
“Alright then, but don’t overdo it. We need you in top form to take care of Reya.”
“Will do, boss.”
“On that note, I’ll head out for now. I’ll be back later to check on her. I’ll try not to wake you up if you’re sleeping.” Rann turned and exited the room. Finding herself all alone, she thought to go check on Beor. She hadn’t heard from him since earlier when they arrived, and things had been rather hectic then. She chastised herself for not having thought of it sooner, having been too focused on Reya.
She wandered the halls of the ship, making her way to Beor’s room. She knocked on his door, but there was no answer. She called Jyn on her comms after Beor didn’t respond when she called him. “Jyn, have you seen Beor? I’m looking for him, but I can’t find him. He’s not in his room.”
“I think he’s in the mess hall grabbing a bite to eat. Said he was hungry after Kell patched him up. You should go check there. He wasn’t in the best of moods when I last saw him.”
“Thanks, I’ll go check. You can go visit Reya now. Tassie’s there with Kell.”
“I’ll think about it,” came his reply. “Maybe later, when I have the time.”
Rann hesitated before letting the matter drop. “Alright. I’ll see you later.” She hung up. Turning around, she went towards the mess hall, hoping to find Beor. He was seated and eating when she arrived. Breathing a sigh of relief that he seemed alright, she greeted him. “Hey, babe,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
Beor looked up from his meal and a small smile flickering at the sight of her. “I’ve seen better days,” he grimaced. He buried his face in his hands. “Today was hard.” His eyes glistened. Rann went over towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I almost lost you,” Rann said, her eyes growing hot with tears. “When you plummeted towards the ground, my heart fell with you.” She sniffed. “It was terrifying, thinking I was about to lose you.”
“I almost died,” Beor said, his tears spilling over. His hands trembled slightly as he put a hand over Rann’s. “When I fell towards the ground, I thought to myself . . . this is how I go.” He looked up towards Rann and her heart lurched upon seeing his expression. “And then again when I got shot.”
Rann couldn’t take it anymore and urged Beor to stand. When he did, she threw herself at him and held him in a crushing grip, afraid that if she let go she would lose him for real. “You were so brave today.” She looked him in the eyes. “Thank you for coming back to me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Beor barked out a sad laugh as he held her tighter, unwilling to let go. “All I managed to do today was fuck up. It almost cost me my life.” He threatened to break down but held strong. “I almost lost you. That’s not bravery.”
“You pushed through the pain and fear to rescue our friend in the face of death. That’s bravery to me.” She relaxed her grip on him. “I don’t ever want to see you hurt like this again,” she cried. Beor held on fast, unwilling to let her go as he leaned on her for support. His own tears spilled over.
“It was terrifying,” he whispered.
“I know. And there was nothing I could do except watch. Thank you, babe,” Rann said through her tears, “for staying alive.” The pair continued to hold each other, rejoicing that they’d both made it out alive.
“Look at us,” Beor said, brushing away some of his tears. “We make a fine pair.”
Rann chuckled softly in his chest.