Chapter 1
Point of View: Ezra
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Just.
Breath.
In.
Ou-
The door opened suddenly, causing me to jump backwards and hit my elbow against the edge of the seat.
I gasped and cursed under my breath.
Sabine poked her head in with a smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared when she saw my horrified expression.
My hands.
They won't stop shaking.
"You're still in the Phantom? We're at the base, you know that right?" Sabine said kindly, while pulling out a seat in front of me.
"I-I can't breathe," I panted. I felt my body shudder at the sudden recollection of the memory.
Dead.
They all died.
And we...
And I...did nothing.
The screams.
It was all so violent. So painful.
They were innocent. And yet the suffered.
I winced at the ringing sound in my ears, the ongoing sound of the screams of the children who watched the parents fall to their knees as the took their last breath. The cries of insanity that echoed through the streets as families were torn apart.
And we did nothing.
The crying.
The corpses lying left and right.
The blood.
I gagged at that last thought, and felt my head spin. My breathing picked up, and I felt like I couldn't get enough air.
The lifeless eyes.
The emptiness.
My stomach lurched, and it must have been pretty clear that I was going to be sick, so Sabine leaped out of the way.
I grabbed my stomach and gagged.
In.
Out.
Breath Ezra.
"Ezra!" I heard someone call, interrupting my thoughts.
Had she been calling me before?
"We need to get you to the med bay, now," Sabine ordered, helping me out of my chair.
I didn't stand for long, her grip on me wasn't tight enough, so I slid done to the Phantom floor, collapsing in a pathetic little heap.
My entire body was shaking.
I can still see it.
I can still hear it.
"I cAN't BrEATH!" I gasped, clutching my stomach. I coughed. "We have to go back!" I cried. "We have to HELP THEM!" I could feel myself losing my sanity, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I was allowing myself to cry now.
I sobbed. "They're DEAD, and we did NOTHING!"
Sabine tried to get me off the floor, sliding her arm around me back to hoist me up. "Ezra, no one died! You're scaring me, what the krif are you talking about?!"
"You were there! AND YOU WATCHED!" I shouted, trying to escape Sabine's tight hold on me.
"Ezra, you need to STOP," Sabine said firmly. "You were asleep the entire flight back."
I stopped moving. "Flight back from where?" I said, in an almost delirious state of mind.
I can't remember anything.
I just remember the screaming.
"From our meeting on Alderaan. You fell asleep on the flight back. You had to have been dreaming," she explained calmly.
She lifted me up a little to try to get me back into the chair, and I did my part too, with whatever strength I had.
"Stay in the chair. I'm going to get Kanan," she ordered, before heading back into the Ghost.
In.
Out.
In.
I sighed.
Out.
I could hear muffled voices around me.
Everything's pitch black.
Probably because my eyes are closed.
"Shh, he's waking up."
"Why would we be quiet if he's gonna wake up anyway?"
I groaned, and slowly opened my eyes.
Feels like I slept of a rock.
I breathed in deep and sat myself up.
I sniffed the air.
Ga- smells so sterile.
Wait, sterile?
Oh shoot, I'm in the med bay.
I looked around curiously, shuffling uneasily under the sheets.
I looked to my left, where Hera sat calmly, giving me a reassuring look. Sabine was on my left, looking sort of panicked. I mean, I don't blame her, I just had a nervous breakdown over a dream.
Or at least I think it was.
"Sabine told us," Hera sighed, looking toward Kanan.
"It's not a big deal guys..." I muttered. "So what? I got freaked out over a dream, the end."
"The end?" Sabine scoffed.
"I don't understand why I'm in the med bay! Would someone please explain to me why I'm in the med bay!" I sighed angrily.
"Do you remember anything after when I left you in the Phantom?" Sabine asked calmly.
I drew in a sharp breath "No," I muttered, looking down at my lap.
Kanan stepped forward. "We found you lying on the ground next to your, um, bile. "
"Gross," I muttered.
"The point," Hera said assertively, "is that this wasn't a normal experience. Can you tell us what happened?" she asked kindly.
I shifted uncomfortably. "Not really..."
"Ezra," Kanan said, "We can't help you if we don't know what's going on!"
I sighed heavily, feeling an uncomfortable shift in the force.