Brought to the Crossroads

If anyone asked her later about how she'd managed to sneak from one end of the Absolution to the other and steal one of their ships while dragging the unconscious body of a Stormtrooper captain, Vi Moradi better make sure she had a story ready. She would tell the general she was clever. She would tell her Resistance friends she had guts. She would not tell them she had gotten insanely lucky.

Though that was the most likely explanation, no one in the Resistance was going to believe it. Not when Vi herself didn't either. No, she was going to have to give them a tale worthy of a returning hero, a tale fraught with twists and danger. Only then would they accept her back unconditionally.

As she detached the transport from the main ship, the spy made sure she disabled all trackers and alarms the First Order might have embedded into their craft. These transports in particular were generally used for ferrying kidnapped children, cargo the First Order considered invaluable. The last thing she needed was a pursuit... or a self destruct sequence.

Beside her on the floor, alive but barely, was Captain Cardinal. He'd left blood in spots while she was dragging him, making their lack of detection that much more miraculous. Once Vi got out of this sector, she was going to see what medical supplies the ship had for her to use. There was bound to be further action she needed to take in an effort to preserve his life. If Vi tried to make the jump straight back to Parnassos, she figured there was no way he wasn't going to die en route. Travel would take too long. And while it wasn't exactly clear why Vi had decided to care so much (nor had she ruled out the possibility of Stockholm Syndrome), she wasn't in the habit of making promises she couldn't keep. If she said she was going to keep him alive for the Resistance, by the stars she was going to do that.

"Hang in there, Emergency Brake. I gotta make sure your buddies don't come after us." Since when did First Order transport ships have this much security?! Was some of this meant to be childproofing?

By the time Vi was done with her purging, only the mandatory systems (and hyperdrive) could operate at full capacity. Everything else, like weapons and communication, had been disabled. Feeling like she'd taken forever, Vi was quick to pilot the ship away from the Absolution's observation decks, only flying in the destroyer's blind spots. Why were there so many other ships nearby, anyway?

Once she felt confident she was out of range, Vi made her first, short jump into hyperspace to a nearby asteroid belt. She did her best not to consider all the ways this could go wrong.

Parked on an asteroid, Vi left the pilot's chair and dragged the captain to the ship's miniature medbay. The supplies in there were sparse, and clearly not meant to deal with any serious injury. The spy did find some antiseptic, however, and applied it to his wound to prevent mundane types of infection. She also had the supplies out to bandage his wound, but had to wonder: if he'd been stabbed with Phasma's infected blade, would it be better to let him bleed out more of the poison, or had he lost enough that further bleeding would kill him? He'd already bled out quite a bit, after all. Knocking him out had (mostly) eliminated the potential for him to go into shock, but... wait. Was the knife even still potent enough to kill by infection alone? The original owner had coated it over a decade ago, and it hadn't exactly been maintained or preserved well, so...

"Urrrrgh!" She had to take a step back, and was hit by a spell of dizziness. It was only then that she remembered her own wounds.

She had to take it easy. If she kept doing this to herself, she was going to be the one who went into shock. She had to do this calmly and correctly, or else Cardinal would face death at the hands of Vi's incompetence.

But Vi wasn't a medic! She didn't know how to handle any of this! But if she hesitated for too long, her patient would die for sure. So Vi made the best decision she could with the limited knowledge she had and got ready to bandage his wound. That, at least, she knew how to do. Maybe if she just took this one step at a time, it would all turn out alright for them.

Careful not to aggravate his wounds, Vi removed the Stormtrooper uniform piece by piece. It looked like he'd gotten most of the blood on himself, and his skin exposed several bruises, likely from the same fight. Vi wished she could have seen it. Maybe she would tell the others she had. She would say he hadn't left Phasma unscathed, but that she'd finally gotten him in a low blow to the backside, a move he'd been too honorable to expect. It was probably the truth.

The spy placed the armor and bodysuit off to the side. They could be trashed later. To preserve his modesty, Vi threw a blanket over his lower half, then got to work.

His breathing was so slow, and his pulse... that's it, she had to get the bleeding to stop. It had slowed down some, but the first layer of bandages still got soaked. Vi didn't have any stitches to work with, so she tried to apply the straps in a way that kept the wound more closed. The constant, repetitive motion almost served to soothe her. By the time she was doing the finishing touches, her hands had stopped shaking.

Once she was done, she made sure his position didn't put any pressure on the stab wound and that there weren't any other places in need of her attention. After that, there was nothing else she could do.

Vi knew her work wasn't the best. But she'd needed to steady him so they get somewhere with help. She had to get back to Siv and fulfill her other promise.

It was all on her now. Vi just had to hope she hadn't made anything worse.

Cardinal knew before he even woke up that he had made everything worse.

He'd known attacking Phasma on the Absolution was a stupid thing to do. The two captains would have been on equal footing... had he not been hung over from drink and internal turmoil. If he'd fought more like a First Order Captain and less like a desperate scavenger, things might have gone differently.

But... even if they had... so what? Phasma deserved to die for her treachery, but murdering her in the hallway was not appropriate conduct for the situation. Killing her like that would have damaged his reputation as well, throwing any accusations he made after the fact into question. No, he should have tried again in reporting to his superiors. Even if Hux had blocked him from the meeting that one time, Cardinal could have waited for an opportunity to alert someone else. No one would have known about the evidence the spy had given him. If he'd wanted to take Phasma down and live, he could have...

Wait... was he still alive? But he thought...

"You're finished. You just haven't realized it yet."

Cardinal had been stabbed. He remembered that much, but the rest of the circumstances were a blur. He thought he'd used the knife against Phasma, so... she'd taken her old knife back from him? If it happened during the struggle, had that been what she stabbed him with?

That must have been it. And it would explain her last words.

But wasn't the blade poisonous? Unless he'd been taken to the ship's medbay right away, he couldn't imagine how he was alive right now. And why would Phasma take him to the medbay? She was the only one who'd known his condition, right? There hadn't been anyone else.

Or had there?

"Siv, can you give us a minute? I think he might be waking up."

His eyes flew open as the door closed. He tried to sit up, but was pushed back down by...

"So, Emergency Brake. You survived after all. You had me concerned for a minute, there."

Cardinal took a minute to focus. When his vision finally cooperated, he found himself face to face with... the spy? "W-What?"

"Well, your stab wound was pretty deep. You bled a lot. I did the best I could for you, but I'm not very skilled at this sort of thing." She paused, realizing something. "Do you remember our last conversation?"

"I let you go, didn't I?" No wait, that wasn't it. Cardinal had seen her another time after that. "You... found me after that. On the ground." And in that moment, everything came back to him. Cardinal tried once again to sit up, to get a better look at his surroundings.

It was a medbay of some type, but it wasn't the Absolution's. Or any that belonged to the First Order, if the layout were any indication.

So where was he? Some sort of Resistance base? Because if that were the case-

Cardinal struggled against his bonds, ignoring the shooting pains it brought him. He had to get out of here. He wouldn't let himself be interrogated. He wouldn't allow them to-

"Hey, hey, calm down. You're going to hurt yourself even more if you do that." The spy kept her pressure gentle, but her tone was insistent. "You've got a long road of recovery ahead of you."

One bound to a flat cushion, while the other sat across and guided the conversation. The situation was familiar, if reversed. The irony was not lost on him.

Cardinal decided to cooperate, if just for now. He didn't think he was strong enough to break free just yet. "Where am I?"

"Parnassos. I haven't taken you to the Resistance yet, if that's what you were wondering. The only people here are you, me, Siv, and Torbi. And the droids, if you count them." He did not. "Siv's been helping me watch over you. You had to be kept asleep while your infection was drawn out. Unfortunately, I didn't get you here right away, so it spread to several organs. The diagnosis suggests the possibility of permanent damage, but we'll see what happens. You've been pretty resilient so far, so I would say there's still a shot at full recovery."

She was trying to soften the blow, but at the mention of permanent damage... just the possibility gave him chills. What would Cardinal do, if he had to live as a cripple? What would happen to him?

Usually, if the First Order found one of their soldiers crippled beyond repair or prosthetic, they usually just... the possibility scared him too much to think out loud. By that point, soldiers were better off dead. The Order's medical technology made the situation exceedingly rare, but even they couldn't prevent one hundred percent of incidents. And Cardinal had no doubt their tech was superior to this places, so that brought him back full circle: what was to become of him?

And there was another question, too. One Cardinal felt he had to ask the spy before anything else. "...Why?"

She didn't catch his meaning right away. "Why did the infection spread? Because I had to drag you across the ship without being seen, steal a transport without being detected, keep you from bleeding to death or going into shock on the way over, and get you to a place that even could take care of you before you had a chance at survival. I moved as fast as I could, but-"

"No." That wasn't the answer he was after. "Why did you bring me here? Why not just... leave?"

She sighed, pushing a tendril of hair back to reveal bandages of her own. Bandages from where she'd been tortured. When Cardinal saw them, he found he could no longer justify having inflicted that pain on her. "I'm not sure yet, myself. But after knowing all the things Phasma gets away with, I didn't want her to succeed again." Was she saying that to appeal to him, or did she mean it? Her next sentence made him unsure. "The First Order's worse off for losing you, you know. And where the First Order stands to lose, the Resistance stands to-"

"I never agreed to join you, you know." Cardinal almost regretted saying that, after everything she'd done for him, but it was true. "Just because I can't go back to what I was doesn't mean-"

"I know, I know. But you have time to think about it, here. We'll come to an arrangement once you've healed. I'm sure we can figure something out." She didn't seem all that concerned by the idea. "You've got the rest of your life ahead of you. What you do with it is up to you."

What was he going to do with the rest of his life, anyway? Was there anything left for him in this galaxy? Anyone that still wanted him or would miss him? Was his only option for finding a new purpose in life to betray everyone and everything he'd once worked for? Did Cardinal even have it in him to raise a weapon against the soldiers he'd once trained, the kids he'd watched transform? Just thinking about it now, Cardinal didn't think he could do it.

He was willing to kill Phasma. He'd proved that earlier. But anyone else in the First Order (even... yeah, even Hux), and he knew he would hesitate.

And Vi Moradi must have sensed that. "I'm sorry for... your pain."

"I can't even feel my back right now."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. And I'm..." Cardinal had to think for a second. He had to make sure he meant it before he said it. "I'm sorry I was harsher than necessary in the interrogation. I probably didn't need to shock you as many times as I did."

"No you did not."

It looked like she was going to say more, but then a medical droid burst through the door. "Welcome to Constar Mining Corporation! It seems you have accrued a series of on-the-job injuries, but never fear! As your generous employer, Constar will nurse you back to full working capacity, and the bill will be one hundred percent covered by your paycheck, following the monthly increments of..."

The droid wasn't done talking, but Cardinal was done listening. He turned back to Vi as she stood up to leave. "I'll give you time to rest. Siv agreed to wait for you before we leave. It's fewer trips that way." She reached down, grasping his hand for only a second. "So no need to escape while I'm gone. Just focus on making a full recovery before doing anything else." He wasn't given a chance to respond before she left the room. And so there Cardinal was, left again with nothing but his thoughts.

It seemed he needed to reevaluate his assessment of Vi Moradi once again. There was no use in resenting her, not by this point. No matter how hard his mind tried, he knew it wasn't right to blame her for the position he was in. If nothing else, he'd asked her to put him in it, and without her act of generosity, he would be dead. There was no point in wondering if he should have perished because, simply stated, he hadn't.

But in a way, he supposed a part of him had. Never again could he have such blind faith in the First Order. Never again could he trust them in all their missions. And how could he go back to inspiring others to do the same if he didn't believe them himself? The very reason he'd been able to connect with so many troopers was because his passion had been genuine. Growing up, they'd needed that ideal figure to orient themselves to before they had it dashed in favor of a much darker reality. At least until sixteen, Cardinal had been able to preserve their innocence.

And though Vi had done more than anyone else to catalyze his shift away from idealism, he didn't blame her for it either. Even if she'd never come into his life, he wouldn't have continued on completely ignorant. The very fact that he'd interrogated instead of killed her proved he wasn't without previous suspicions. Sooner or later, those suspicions would have eaten his ideals away. It was just going to be a matter of how long he could stall them before they finally did.

Cardinal didn't know what was going to come of it, but... he supposed he could team up with Vi for just a little longer. They could get Siv and her daughter to civilization together. It would give him something to do, if nothing else.

He owed Vi that much, at least.

A/N's: So I followed my promise from my birthday/anniversary fic and actually did decide to put together a nice one shot in time for Christmas. I dedicate this work to Reckless Darkness over on AO3. She wanted a fic with this characters, and while I may not have made it sufficiently shippy (it's more pre-relationship than anything), I hope she still enjoys it. Even if I did kind of tread on similar territory to her own fic in dealing with the direct aftermath of Phasma.

Ah well. I had fun putting this together. And I have other fics I need to work on updates for, so... thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, and I'll see you on the far side!