Pain.

Terrible pain.

Am I… Dead?

No…

Not dead…

Can't… Move…

Voices… I hear voices…

They sound… Afraid.

I need to move… To help them…

Move…

Pain.

Terrible pain.

"He's going to be fine, right?"

"I can't tell, Sabine."

"What happened? Allergy?"

"Impossible. Lothalian blood is resistant to allergies. My brother couldn't have had one."

"Hera, his temps up another few degrees!"

Hera jumped, and, rushing to the Hydrosink, she slapped yet another wet cloth on Ezra's forehead.

It was an hour after Ezra's collapse, and the medbay was filled as never before.

Zeb was leaning against the wall next to the door, looking scared and upset, his eyes staring blankly into space. Kanan stood next to Caleb, who was sitting on one of the plastic chairs, his hands covering his face, looking as sweaty and pale as the boy lying on the bench before them. Hera was bustling around, never staying in one place or doing one thing for too long. And Sabine sat in another one of the chairs next to Ezra's head, absentmindedly brushing the hair out of his eyes.

They all sat in silence for a little while more, before it became apparent that there was no more point in staying there. Slowly, the they drifted off to bed, Caleb leaving for Capital City, until only Sabine and Hera remained in the medbay. Hera seemed immersed in her computer readouts, and didn't immediately register the fact that she had company.

"You'd better get to bed, Sabine. I'll do what I can for him."

Sabine shook her head vigorously. "I'm not tired," she said.

Hera tried to press her to get some sleep, but Sabine flat-out refused.

At about 11 o'clock, Hera set the computers on auto-care and left for her room. Sabine pretended to follow, but doubled back, and sat in the medbay with Ezra. She wasn't exactly sure why she was doing this. But she dismissed those thoughts, concentrating on Ezra's pale, blank face.

The next morning, when Hera re-entered the medbay, she smiled at the sight of Sabine, slumped in one of the chairs, eyes shut so tight you could have sworn she was dead if she wasn't breathing.

When everyone had woken up, and Caleb returned to check on his brother, Hera was looking once again very grim, all signs of happiness gone from her pale face.

"Ezra is sick. Really sick, I just don't know what he's got yet. But it's getting worse."

No one spoke. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to say it. Kanan spoke first.

"What specifically is wrong with Ezra? Like, can he speak, or anything?"

"That's what's confusing me," Hera said, with a failed attempt at a grim smile. "He seems to be in some sort of deep, meditative state. Not really asleep, or unconscious. Just… There. I can't make any sense of it. His symptoms don't match any I've ever seen, and the medical scans just come up blank!"

"So… He's got an unknown disease, and considering it's unknown, it could be contagious. We could all have got it by now." Kanan said. No one else spoke for a long time, and Hera began to walk back to the medbay, when Sabine voiced the concern that was on everyone's mind.

"Is it… Fatal?"

Hera stopped dead. But when she turned, Sabine could see the ghost of what looked like… Tears, in Hera's eyes.

"Whatever he's got, it's slowly burning away at his bloodstream, and will eventually reach his heart. So for all intents and purposes… Yes. It is entirely fatal."