Another day and Emma was barely breathing at all. Regina looked down at Emma, more of a shell of the woman who'd crashed on this planet than anything. She could feel it, the end, it was coming for Emma quickly now. All that talking and encouraging her to get better, all the keeping her fever down, making sure she kept drinking, it hadn't worked. Emma Swan would die in the next day. There was no way around it.
Regina sat back against the cave wall, looking over at Emma. She knew she should be doing something, trying to ease Emma's pain but she just couldn't make herself at the moment. She was frozen, unable to do anything but sit there, looking death straight in the face, and trying to come to terms with it. She'd always known that in the Directive she could die at any time. That was something ever solider thought about, left instructions in case of their death, lefts wills for, and any number of other things. But that was almost always a quick death they were guaranteed. No one lived long after being blown into space, or in a massive explosion. This was different, infection and starvation were somehow much more terrifying ways to die.
She curled herself into a ball and took a few deep breaths. She had to snap herself out of this. Like everything else it was mind over matter. She would make Swan's last hours more bearable for her, even if Emma didn't realize she had. Regina had to be the Captain she was. She shut her eyes hard and cleared her mind slowly, one item at a time being stuffed into a mental box and locked away. She would deal with these issues later. Or maybe she would never get a chance to, either way, they weren't important now.
Regina crawled forward once again, muscles twinging at the movement. She felt a little winded just from the trip across the cave. At the end of this she was not going to have a good time getting anywhere else to look for food, but she would still do it. Another trip to the pool to cool the shirt and she was back by Emma's side.
If she had thought Emma had looked bad a few days before, she was almost like a ghost now. Regina supposed that if such things were real, it was fitting that Emma looked so like one this close to death. But then she shook that thought off.
She started to wipe at Emma's brow. Without meaning to really, she started to hum gently. It was a tune she used to sing to Henry to put him to sleep, something her father before her had sang to her on nights when she was a restless little girl who refused to sleep. She'd loved that song, her one comfort in a house where her mother ruled with an iron fist. Sometimes now she would catch Henry humming it under his breath while his mind was elsewhere, distracted by books from the academy or tinkering around with one of his many projects. It warmed her heart and she knew, when the time came, Henry would sing the same song to his children.
But why she was humming it now, she wasn't sure. It was a warm bed time song meant to soothe children. It was not the sort of song someone sang a dying woman, but here she was anyway. She supposed there was nothing else she could do, and so she kept at it for a little while before she actually started to sing.
The words echoed all around them, building her voice up until it sounded like she was a full choir instead of one lone woman so very close to death. She felt tears prick at her eyes. How in the world had it come to this? Zelena was the simple answer, but nothing in life really had a simple answer, and so she kept singing, sound surrounding her as Emma gasped in tiny breath after breath.
She stopped as soon as she heard something, louder than the scrabbling of whatever tiny animals she had chased for food a few days earlier. Regina listened hard. It sounded like footsteps, like voices, all of them speaking in familiar sounds. She wondered if she was imagining things, if the lack of food had caused her to go a little crazy. It was a possibility. Otherwise, why in the world would Zelena's troops be looking for her now? They had been gone for days, anyone would assume they were dead, or very close to it.
Regina pushed herself up and scoured the area for weapons. There weren't a lot of options, or any really. There were rocks of assorted sizes and that was it. They would have to do. Regina picked up one, feeling the weight drag her down more than it should. She wondered how much force she could actually put behind it. Hopefully enough.
She crept to the edge of the cave and peeked around the rim carefully. She could see no one, but the sounds were getting louder. She could almost make out the words that the people were saying. They were definitely speaking her language, but that didn't mean much since it was also the United System's official language and everyone learned it. Regina listened harder, fist wrapping around the rock until it turned white.
"—sure she would be here?"
Regina's eyes widened as she finally could make out words. That voice, it was distorted by the echoes around the canyon, but it seemed familiar.
"I know Regina, she would have come this way. It was where she was heading in the first place. Her transport would have been able to fly through here but their ship wouldn't have. IT would have given her enough time to come up with a new strategy. It's classic academy stuff."
Regina gasped in a breath. Mal. She felt tears spring to her eyes. Mal was here. This wasn't an enemy come to finish them off, it was a rescue party. She almost called out, but then froze. What if it was still an enemy who had captured her crew to use them to find her and finish her off for good? It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. Zelena would want proof of her death.
She stepped back into the shadows and continued to watch the end of the canyon, waiting for her crew to crest the little ridge. She didn't have to wait long, another two minutes later they were there. Regina counted ten of them, looking battered in their exosuits, even from this distance. She took it that the battle that had ensued after their transport had crashed had not gone well for them. Which just lent credence to her theory that they could have been captured and forced out here.
But she saw no strangers among them. Unless they were being monitored from elsewhere, this looked like a legitimate rescue party. And really, what did she have to lose if it wasn't? She was going to die in this canyon one way or another if she wasn't being rescued.
"Mal!" Regina stepped out from the cave, letting the rock drop to the floor.
Mal looked up for half a second before she was dashing toward Regina. She stopped half an inch in front of her before wrapping Regina up in a gentle, but thorough hug.
"Regina, thank god. We thought you were dead, but then Blue swore the instruments in the ship said that two live bodies got out of the wreckage. We came to look for you as soon as we could." She stepped back and looked Regina over. "And frankly you look like hell."
Regina glared at her. "I wonder why? It couldn't be because I've been trapped in a canyon without food for who knows how long, could it?"
Blue stepped forward, a huge bruise on her face fading to sickly yellow-green. "It's been a little over a week."
Regina nodded, taking that in stride. "You brought medical supplies yes? And tell me that you brought a hover-stretcher. Emma—Swan needs it. She needs out of this canyon and medical attention as soon as possible."
Mal nodded. "We would have brought Tamara with us, but we didn't know how dangerous this mission was going to be and we didn't want to leave the ship without it's best doctor, especially now." She shook her head. "It is…not good up there, Regina."
"You can fill me in on the way up. For now Swan needs attention more than anything else. She's our best mechanic and I—we can't lose her in the middle of a battle like this if it's as bad as your voice makes it sound."
Mal nodded. She gestured to rest of the crew and they came forward with their supplies. Regina led them back to Swan and the others got to work lifting the other woman gently onto a hover-stretcher that they unpacked with the efficiency only officers of the Directive seemed to have. She watched vigilantly. She didn't want Emma to be mistreated after surviving this long. Regina really didn't think she would be, but still.
"Are you going to be able to walk back on your own?" Mal asked her, standing beside her, watching over the others as well.
Regina thought about that for a second, taking stock of her body and how it felt. She was weak, she knew that, and knew that if she walked now it would be slowly and that there was no real guarantee that she would make it all the way on her own. It would be slightly humiliating to actually have to be carried out, but in this case, if they needed to get out fast, it might be the better option.
"Did you bring two stretchers or one?" Regina asked.
"Two."
Regina nodded. "I could probably walk out, but it would be very slowly and I may not make it as far as I think."
Mal pulled one of the supply bags to her and took out the other stretcher, putting it together with ease. When she was done she motioned to Regina. "Hop on there, Captain. We don't have all day."
Regina took one last look at Emma, but she was secured back onto her own stretcher and the group around her was starting towards the mouth of the cave. Good. She climbed onto the stretcher and strapped herself on.
"Like you said, Mal, we don't have all day."
Mal rolled her eyes. "Stuck in a canyon for a week and you still manage to have attitude. Figures."
"You can take the Captain out of the ship but you can't take the Captain out of the girl, don't you know." Regina smiled weakly.
Mal lifted up the stretcher and then pulled it forward. "Oh, I'm well aware."
They made their way out of the canyon as fast as possible with two stretchers, but still, they made better time on the way out that Emma and Regina had made on the way in, though that wasn't surprising considering no one was injured and they didn't have to hide from a ship passing overhead.
The transport ship was waiting for them, along with a small fleet of fighters. Everyone cheered at the sight of them coming back with stretchers. All around them engines fired up.
Regina looked up at Mal. "Let me off this thing."
Mal gave her a dubious look but stopped long enough for Regina to pull herself up from the stretcher. She stood shakily and walked forward slowly towards the transport. The crowd in the ships cheered louder and Regina nodded at every one of them as she continued to walk. When she reached the transport she sat down in the first available seat and sighed heavily. She was very, very tired, but hopefully that would give the men something to rally around. Their captain was alive and at least somewhat well.
Quickly Emma was loaded onto the transport and then they were in the air. Mal sat down beside her and started to gently go over Regina for injuries. Regina really didn't have the energy to tell her that the only thing that was wrong with her was starvation. That walk had taken more out of her than she cared to admit.
"So how is everything?" Regina managed after a few minutes of Mal gently probing her various limbs and watching Regina's reactions.
Mal shook her head. "It's bad. Very bad, I don't know if we've been through anything like this before. That day you crash we took some heavy losses. A fourth of the flight crew…" she shook her head. "I ordered a retreat but they kept finding us and taking a few more of the crew with them at a time. We only have half the flight crew left and damned few fighters that can actually fly. There's not a lot of ammo left. There's not a lot of anything left, at least that's useful to fight. Granny still has enough food to feed an army, so there's always that."
Regina laughed humorlessly. "We'll go well fed into the afterlife, is what you're saying."
"Basically."
Regina's eyes drifted shut. How in the world was she supposed to get them out of this?
"The only reason we managed to get back here to rescue you was a jump. They weren't exactly expecting it and I don't think they're looking for us back here, but that won't last long." Mal rubbed her hands over her face, sitting back, down with her cursory check of Regina. She looked so tired that Regina didn't doubt that she'd barely slept during the entire week and half that Regina had been stuck in the canyon.
"I've been holding everything together as best as I could, but I admit one of the big reasons we sacrificed any time to come back here for you is that everyone agreed that having you would be a bigger asset than any downsides from this mission."
Regina nodded, accepting that without a fight. It was simple math really in a fight. You did what was best for the biggest amount of people. As a Captain she was prepared that those choices wouldn't always be in her best interest.
Fear gripped her though as the information finally sunk in. Half of the flight crew was now dead. Henry.
She reached out and grabbed onto Mal as hard as her weakened muscles would let her. "Mal, Henry?"
Mal's hand came to rest on top of Regina's. "He's fine. So's Lily. As the number of useable ships went down only the experience fliers actually went out on missions. He's frustrated that he can't help in any way and worried about you, but he's fine otherwise."
Regina breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god. Thank every single god that's out there."
Mal squeezed Regina's hand. "I know."
They sat in silence for a few minutes as the ship shook around them, breeching atmo once more. Regina's thoughts drifted to the fact that if she didn't do something to turn this confrontation around the fact that Henry and Lily were safe now wasn't going to mean a damn thing. She had to try something, anything. But she was so exhausted she didn't know what the hell that something or anything could be.
The shaking around them stopped and Regina felt the ship begin to float effortlessly. They were in space now, flying towards their ship. Regina was glad she didn't have the strength to get up and go see what the Rocinate looked like now. Her beautiful ship probably looked more like a scrap heap if what Mal was saying was true.
"So what are we going to do now, Captain?" Mal asked, blue eyes so very tired but just a little hopeful. Regina hated to crush that, but she knew it was important to be honest with her second in command.
"I don't know."
