He was there.
And he couldn't reach her.
He called out to her.
He saw her turn slightly.
Her saw her green eyes, wide with fear.
And then the pulsing light split through her body, cleaving her from shoulder to spine.
And she fell.
He saw her laying there, spattered in her own blood.
He tried to run to her, but he couldn't move.
He watched as the light went out of her eyes.
He watched as she reached for him one last time.
And then she was gone.
He heard screaming.
And then he realized that it was him...
Darman shot up out of bed, his heart beating madly. He was covered in a cold sweat, and he couldn't catch his breath. With shaky hands, he reached up to touch his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart as it was thrown into overtime. Had it all been a dream?
No.
A nightmare.
He clutched his head, and leaned his elbows on his knees. He could still see her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, staring back at him from the hard, unforgiving ground as the life was sucked away from her. He sucked in a harsh, ragged breath, and his mouth felt dry and empty.
A soft, and annoyed groan caught his attention and he whipped his head to the side to see Etain stirring in her sleep. Her bleary green eyes opened and she stared at his silhouette in the dark. With one pale hand, she reached out to him, and he grasped it, holding it close to his face, reassuring himself it was all really just a dream. He needed to see her, to feel her, to remember she was there. He brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles.
"Dar?" she murmured sleepily. "What's wrong?"
Darman shook his head, his dark eyes watching her every movement with the air of a starving man; any moment, she might dissappear. Any moment, she'd be gone and he wouldn't be able to reach her. "It's nothing," he managed, trying to level his shaking voice. "Go back to sleep, cyar'ika." The nightmare replayed before his eyes, and he choked on his own fears as his perceptive wife's brows furrowed slightly.
But Etain, seemingly pacified and none the wiser to his inner struggle, snuggled closer into the pillows and within moments had drifted off into slumber. Darman sat up in bed, body trembling and Etain's hand still held tightly in his own. He watched her sleep, his eyes riveted to every movement, every contour of her body.
Somewhere in the night, creatures cried out to the sky, howling their lament to the Mandalorian moon.
Darman did his best to quiet his troubled sleep, and tried to erase the horrific vision of Etain in his mind's eye by pretending it hadn't happened. But he couldn't deny how real it felt.
Body shaking, and breath ragged, he lay back on the bed, shutting his eyes tightly as he pulled Etain close to him. Once many more agonizing hours, in which he spent reliving his gut-wrenching nightmare, Darman finally followed Etain back into the world of dreams.
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A/N: I was pissed when I read the ending of RC...It was all a dream Dar. Don't worry. Or at least, that's what I kept telling myself. Then I re-read it and went 'Nope. Not a dream.' Damn it.