HOUR 46

16 KNOWN INFECTED

7 MISSING

42 DEAD

When Minerva was four years old, she saw her first dead body; the body of her mother. She had died in the night from fever, and seeing as how their cabin aboard Perseverance was so cramped and small, there was no avoiding the sight of her body tucked into the bed beside her father. Minerva had woken up before anyone else that morning, the stiff discomfort she felt from having to sleep on the small booth that made up the family's kitchen table causing her to toss and turn herself awake. It was the smell that first alerted her to a problem. A potent combination of a public toilet and the unbearably sweet scent of a used wine glass, the stench that had filled the room was just in its beginning stages.

She'd sat up to see her mother looking up at her from the bed, which made her grin until she realized that she wasn't smiling back. A brown liquid was dripping out of the corner of her thin mouth, a mixture of bile and blood from her stomach. Minerva took the blanket off of her tiny frame and walked towards her mother and father, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. For a moment she just stood there until her father woke up, who was thrown off by his daughter standing over him. Following her frightened eyes, he quickly sat up and looked at his wife. Realizing that Esté was dead, he ran a tired hand through his hair and sighed. He never said a word to Minerva -or to anyone- about it, and before he left the cabin to fetch a medical team to take her body away, he put her back to bed as if nothing had happened.

A few minutes later he returned, making the team stay outside with the gurney so as not to wake the other children. Harnam and Thessaly never once stirred from sleep, even during the momentous occasion of death. The two of them would wake up to find her missing, as if she had never existed at all. Her father took the covers off of his wife and picked her up, carrying her out of the cabin. Her eyes were still open as they left.

She saw them again during her first month in medical training. They had kept her mother's body as a practice cadaver for groups like hers learning about how the human body worked, conquered, and failed. They wanted Esté for the disease in her lungs that had been plaguing quite a few people aboard Perseverance and the other colony ships; an effect of deep space travel in cramped living conditions. At first she didn't recognize her and put on her gloves and goggles with the rest of them, just trying not to throw up from the intense smell of the formaldehyde. Her body had browned and yellowed, she had mummified, and pieces and parts of her were missing. They'd removed bits of skin from her palms and wrists to get a look at their anatomy, and her chest cavity was covered in plastic wrap after it had been cracked open and separated fourteen years prior.

It was when she looked at the flimsy tag attached to her big toe that she realized she had helped to label her own mother's organs. After that she threw up in the middle of the lab and had to be escorted out, a nervous break down causing her to let out one blood-curdling scream after another. She felt dirty, disgusting, and contaminated, refusing to leave her cabin at the facility for two weeks. Seeing her mother's body on the table after all this time made Minerva feel as if she had let her down. She should have been at rest, not propped up on display. It was as if her mother's spirit was haunting her. Eventually she agreed to come out if the body was shot out into space as it should have been nearly two decades before. She stood at the window of the morgue as the body was released, just to make sure she wouldn't be coming back. None of the other family members came.

Minerva seemed to have a problem with the dead coming back to haunt her, and the effects were wearing on her, body and soul. It was getting harder and harder for her to tell what was real and what was fake. Hallucinations were not a rare occurrence. However, feeling the dead woman's eyes on her own once more alerted her to her reality. Inessa Kurlish was still there.

She gripped the woman's baby tightly in her arms as what was left of her slowly and disgustingly moved off of the operating table that she was strapped to. Puddles of blood and pus were left on the metal surface as the lumpy and ripped shapes of her body slid into a standing position. You could see where her boils had gotten so large that they had exploded into bloody holes, the skin splitting open as if you had popped a grape. It had left her disfigured and monumentally large, with mutated skin, fat, and muscle left growing from her like a fungus. Minerva's eyes shot to one of her legs as the woman put her foot down, the exposed bones in her knee popping into place with a crack.

The sound of this made the baby start crying again, the unnatural noises enough to make anyone cringe. Minerva held her more tightly, taking a hand off of her gun and placing it on the baby's head as she put her lips together in a half-hearted shh. She looked back at it's mother and began backing away, not wanting her to get too close.

"I-Inessa?" she stuttered, her voice and the baby's the only sounds in the room besides the strange drippings and pops of the mother. "Is that you?"

The woman let out another ear-piercing scream, making Minerva jump from nerves. The sound of it was unlike anything she had ever heard before, and she could feel the hair at the back of her neck and arms stand up straight with fear. She swiftly returned her hand to the gun again and propped it up against her hip. "Inessa, please! I don't mean any harm!"

"Ba-a-by!" shouted Inessa, her voice croaking. The woman stuck out her arms and began reaching for the two of them, but before she could come any closer, a chain at her ankle and neck pulled her back. She belted out another screech in anger.

"I-I'm getting her out of here! I'm taking her someplace safe!" cried Minerva, backing up into a wall. "Please, I... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that I left you! I thought that you were dead! I..."

"Shh-should b-be..." muttered Inessa pitifully. Her eyes were piercing and black as she stared at the little nurse in front of her. Sorrowfully, she reached out again with one hand, pointing at her. "W-where is... my s-s-son? Ossscar?"

Minerva shifted, her eyes drifting to the floor at the thought of the lost boy. "I don't know where he is," she replied, her heart sinking in her chest at having to admit this to his mother. "I've been trying to find him. I want to help him if I can." Minerva shut her mouth before anything else could come out; she decided that it was best not to tell her what had happened to him.

Inessa let out a strange gurgling sound from the hole in her throat, and soon Minerva figured out that she was crying. Her tear ducts no longer functioned correctly however, and instead of tears, stinging, hot blood ran down her disfigured face like melted wax. She didn't have eyelids anymore, either, and could no longer blink them away. In pain from yet another bodily failure, Inessa backed up onto the surgical table and placed her ragged hands over her eyes. With a long groan, the woman managed to conjure the words, "...D-don't te-ell h-him... about... me. Kill me-e, and go-o find h-h-him... Take baby... too..."

Minerva felt a chill go down her spine at the woman's request. Suddenly, the weight of the gun hanging from her shoulder seemed to triple. The baby began to squirm in her arms, letting out a series of small cries, almost as if she understood what was going on and could sense the tension. Minerva coddled her as best she could, but the little girl wouldn't stop. Her eyes began to shift back and forth nervously between the mother and her baby. The muggy heat of the room caused a bead of sweat to drip into her eye, which she nervously tried to rub away.

"Please," she spat, as if Minerva needed to be reminded that she wanted to die. "I... can't do this a-anymore. ...My b-body is n-not my own. He-he'll keep me alive forever."

Minerva placed a hand on her rifle, but hesitated, the thought of ending a life -even a life that should have been over days before- an incredibly difficult one to bare. She was a nurse, and she had been trained to save lives, not take them. She was supposed to provide relief, but never in her wildest dreams had she thought that relief would come in the form of blaster fire. Minerva had never killed anyone in her entire life, and in fact, had never even fired a blaster. She was terrified of the things, and thought that she had escaped that horrible privilege of using one by becoming a nurse. She was wrong.

Her hands were shaking with a nervous tremor that kept in time with her heartbeat, causing her fingertips to beat against the plastic shell of the weapon sporadically. The pain in her left arm was excruciating from the bite wounds that Una had given her, causing her to clench her teeth as the muscles retracted. Finally she got a grip on the thing, hoisting it to her waist once again like an executioner's axe, the weight of it making Minerva feel like the condemned man. Forcing the words up from her tongue, she said to Inessa, "I promise to take care of your daughter and to find your son. I'm so sorry that it has to end this way."

"Are you?" said a voice.

Minerva bolted forward at the familiar monotone, and quickly turned her gun away from Inessa and onto her old comrade, Dr. Bhali. He stepped out of the shadows as if he were made of them, the reflection of the rifle's flashlight in his glasses preventing Minerva from seeing his eyes.

"Stay back or I'll shoot!" shouted Minerva with a quiver of uncertainty in her voice.

The man ignored her and took a few steps closer. "I just came to warn you that Mother won't go down that easy. It's all thanks to me and my superior design that Mother is incapable of dying, you see. You can try to put her down if you like, but be warned that it won't end well for you."

Minerva swallowed harshly, holding the baby as tightly as she could with one arm. Raising the gun to meet his face, she asked, "W-what do you mean? What did you do to her?"

"I saved her life," he replied curtly, looking at his creation chained to the table. "I turned Mother into the ultimate being. One who is strong enough to escape death and who is strong enough to destroy any being I deem inferior. Mother has my eternal gratitude for this."

As the man looked away, his head turned at just the right angle to reveal two black eyes, whose color seemed to have been overtaken by his pupils. Around his swollen eyelids was a stinging pink. Alarmed, Minerva whispered harshly, "Gratitude?" He had obviously been experimenting on himself.

He smirked arrogantly and ignored her once more, taking a small bottle out of his coat pocket. He threw it to her and hissed, "Did you come back looking for these, Caulder? Your little pill shaped friends?" The plastic bottle hit her in the chest and fell to the floor, rolling a bit before it came to a stop, revealing the all too familiar name, Valium. Minerva looked away in embarrassment. "You know, I'm surprised that you've made it this far to be honest," he said. "You were always so twitchy and sad. Still are, it would seem. But, if we're telling truths, I'll let you in on something."

Minerva frowned.

"I've always wondered what that dumb tongue of yours would feel like on my cock."

He raised an arm and threw a knife through the air, landing it straight through Minerva's left arm. Nearly dropping the baby, Minerva fell backward from the force of it and landed sharply on her back, slamming into the wall. Letting out a scream in agony, she thought that her body might explode from the pain. She wanted desperately to grab the knife, but because of her grip on the child she had to ignore the wound. She tried to move her arm to aim her gun at him, but the pain was too immense.

"Aw, did that hurt?" he chided as he moved towards her. "Seeing you in pain just makes me want to fuck you even more. It's been a dream of mine to see what kind of face you'll make when I take you. Oh, does the thought of that make your skin crawl? Well don't worry, I would peel all of that stuff off beforehand." Letting out a strange laugh, he began to reach for her and commanded maniacally, "Now give me the baby or else Mother will skin you for me!"

"No!" she screamed, holding the child to her chest as she squirmed and squealed. "I won't let you take her!"

Inessa let out a gut-wrenching screech from the operating table and thrashed around wildly. Dr. Bhali looked at her with a face of annoyance, shaking his head and taking a step towards her. "Now Mother, how many times must I tell you-"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three quick blaster shots pelted Dr. Bhali's back, sending him toppling over into the floor with a thud.

"Minerva!"

It was Kylo Ren.

He bolted through the doorway and into the room, covering his nose at the horrendous stench of Inessa's body. Just to be sure, he took his blaster and aimed it right at the back of Dr. Bhali's head, shooting him point blank. Minerva screamed at the sight of it, causing him to turn around and look at her. Scrambling to her side, the sweaty and bloodied Ren knelt down beside her to help her stand up.

"T-take the baby!" she told him, grabbing the hilt of the knife once her arm was freed up. "We need to get out of here now!"

Kylo Ren took the child into his arms, eyeing the little one with intense curiosity. How had something this fragile survived all of this? He looked at the grotesque figure on the other side of the room and felt his stomach flop, one glance enough to sate his appetite. As he pulled Minerva to her feet, he motioned with his head in her direction and asked, "What the hell is that thing?"

Minerva bared her teeth as she rose to her feet and answered with a grunt, "That's Inessa Kurlish. That's the child's mother." She watched as the man's eyes widened in disbelief. Feeling herself growing more lightheaded by the second, she hurriedly added, "Before we go, we need to kill her."

The woman took a step closer to them and nodded the flesh that made up her head. Looking at the two of them while balancing the baby in his arms, Kylo slowly reached for his blaster once more. Aiming it right between the woman's eyes, he cocked it and fired, the sound of the shot ricocheting throughout the laboratory. Silence reigned.

Inessa fell limply backwards onto the table, the chain at her neck holding her up enough that her body could not fall all the way to the ground. After a bit of swinging from her arms, she was perfectly still, as was Dr. Bhali, whose head seemed to no longer be a discernable shape. Minerva couldn't believe what had happened, seeing as how the dead man on the floor had once been her boss. She'd assisted him in the medical bay for nearly 2 years, and yet she hadn't a single inkling as to who he truly was. The same went for Inessa. She should have been a rosy-cheeked new mother, caring for a newborn that was resting in her arms, not Kylo Ren's. Minerva looked at their bodies and tried not to faint.

A tug on her arm brought her back into frame. She gazed up at Kylo and mustered up a thank you, then stared at the little girl, her heart slowing a bit at the thought of having possibly saved her life. After catching her breath for a moment, an antsy Kylo told her that it was time to go, and assuredly he held her up by her arm and began to drag her out of the room. Blood was leaking down her arm and combining with the strange blisters that were forming around her bite wounds, creating a strange sizzling sound. As they made their way out of the lab, Minerva looked back once more, the feeling of having escaped a little too easily slowly beginning to creep its way into her worried mind.

"I'm fine!" muttered Minerva half-heartedly, trying to catch her breath. Leaning heavily into him, she could feel her heartbeat in her arm, a huge pulsing sensation that had almost brought her to her knees more than once. The stinging, throbbing pain was enough to make her wonder whether or not it was beginning to spread anywhere else. She didn't dare look though, and simply trudged on as best she could.

Kylo Ren hoisted her up and continued to drag her at his side, her entire body lying against him more and more with every step. In his other arm was the baby girl, who seemed remarkably at ease for being in such a horrendous situation. She was tiny and fragile, and occasionally he had to remind himself to not hold onto her so tightly. The whole thing was bizarre. He looked down at Minerva's fizzling arm and tried to suppress his level of shock. He could see the skin melting away with frightful speed, like fat turning into grease in a frying pan. It popped and hissed as if Una's teeth had been coated in acid, the bite marks revealing puddles of dark black ooze. Her arm was no longer the color of skin, and instead had been painted in the sludge and blood from her wounds. The knife that Dr. Bhali had thrown at her was starting to unbelievably rust at the blade. It was as if her blood was turning to acid.

"Minerva, we need to get you some help or else... or else I think you'll lose your arm." he said, panting. Turning down the hall and finding the way to the elevator, he set her down against a wall and pressed a few buttons to activate the manual override. "We need to get off this ship. I wouldn't touch that medical bay with a ten foot pole and the rest of the ship is crumbling."

Minerva stared at the ground, refusing to examine her arm but definitely feeling its affects. "W-we can't leave," she said, rubbing her forehead as a wave of nausea came in. Stuck in the delusion of saving the day, she almost foolishly insisted. "We don't have Oscar. We have to get Oscar."

"Minerva! You have to let that kid go, there's no helping him now!" shouted Ren, annoyed with her inability to drop the issue.

Her eyes shot to his. "No! You don't know that!"

"He's dead, damn it, and you know it! Wake up! The whole crew has been looking for him!"

"He's not dead! He can't be," she replied, her voice cracking. "I have to find him!"

At this, Kylo Ren took his free hand and slammed it beside her head, leaning over her and staring her down fiercely. "You've done enough. Get in the elevator and stop talking nonsense! I'm trying to save your life here." When the baby started crying from the sharpness of his tone, he backpedaled a bit, suddenly remembering that he'd been holding a baby for the past 15 minutes. Watching her tiny hands reach out for something, he didn't quite know what to do, and stood there completely still in confusion, staring at her as if the concept of a baby was foreign to him.

Minerva watched the two of them. With her good arm, she reached back for her and gave her her pointer finger to grab onto, smiling very briefly when she grasped it. Knowing in her heart that Kylo Ren was right, she choked back her tears and nodded her head defeatedly. This little girl had been brought back from the dead in Minerva's mind; she had saved a child's life after all. Reluctantly letting the image of the boy go, she spoke in a harsh whisper, "Let's... get her out of here. Let's go."

He turned back towards her and lost whatever expression was on his face, nodding reassuringly at her decision. "Make a transmission to your uncle on Dreadnaught and tell him we're on our way over, and that if the men aboard don't like it then Kylo Ren will cut off their hands and keep them in a jar." At that, the elevator door opened and he immediately grabbed her up again, pulling her in with little help from her. The baby began to cry even louder.

Barely able to stand, Minerva leaned on the elevator door and tried to raise up her wrist, but seeing as how her flesh was practically melting off of the bone and a knife was all that was holding it in place, it was a bit difficult to do. With a grunt she managed to prop her arm up enough to get to her watch, activating it with slow, stiff movements. As soon as he was able to close the door, Kylo tended to her, holding up her arm for her and tilting it so that her uncle could see her face. He was careful to only touch the uninfected parts however, despite already wearing gloves. While the two of them waited for Dr. Renley to pick up, he tried bouncing the baby girl in the groove of his arm like he remembered seeing mothers do before, her squirming body cradled against him securely. Nothing seemed to be working when it came to comforting her, and Kylo slowly began to grow even more anxious.

"The poor darling," whispered Minerva, her eyelids falling sleepily. She smiled at her as best she could and gave Kylo some instructions. Recalling the short but cheerful time she was able to spend in the postnatal ward aboard Perseverance, she informed the gigantic man on how to properly hold her. "F-fold her arms across her chest, sir," she said, watching expectantly. "Have her... facing the floor."

"What?" he asked, obviously not wanting to do something wrong.

Minerva took in a few shallow breaths. "Fold her arms... across her chest... and hold her there and... her bottom..." she panted, feeling faint but trying very hard to hold on. "Bounce her... a bit... up and down..."

After looking at her quizzically for a few moments, he did as she said, letting go of her arm and taking hold of the baby's, crossing them over her tiny chest. When that was done, he held his massive hand there and moved his other to her bottom, fully supporting her. Almost like magic, the baby stopped crying, the emotion in her face draining and the tears coming to a close. Kylo couldn't believe it. "Oh wow," he said in a whisper, watching the baby.

Losing the strength to stay awake, Minerva fainted, collapsing to the floor with a thud. Kylo immediately went to touch her, but as soon as he bent down, the transmission came through from her uncle. "What is it now, Minerva?" he asked, his smoker's voice as gritty as usual.

Getting to the point, Kylo balanced the baby in the strange hold and said, "This is Kylo Ren. Minerva and I are coming to Dreadnaught. She's been gravely injured and we found the baby she delivered a few days ago."

"You what- oh stars, it's really you isn't it? My niece has always had the most bizarre taste in friends." muttered Renley, cleaning off his glasses. Suddenly realizing what he'd just said, he paused, looked at Ren, and spat, "Wait, what? You said she's injured? What is going on over there?"

Noticing that the elevator was getting close to their stop, Kylo quickly replied, "Be expecting us shortly," before turning off Minerva's watch and throwing her over his shoulder. The baby curled up cosily in the crook of his arm.

HOUR 47

29 KNOWN INFECTED

467 MISSING

161 DEAD

Captain Phasma watched as one by one the doors to the hangar bay were sealed off indefinitely. A flood of men and women came crawling through cracks in the doorways, one man almost getting stuck in the small hexagonal fold of the enormous metal doors. People were pulling others through to safety, while others were realizing that they were running out of room and were yelling at people to go to another hangar. Roughly 5,000 crew members had ended up in Hangar 5, while the other 32,000 had hopefully managed to find refuge in the other authorized zones. It was amazing how quickly the space had filled up, and Phasma was beginning to wonder whether or not there was going to be room enough to breathe. Captain Phasma and Captain Chambra had been in a state of shock ever since they'd found out about General Hux, and an overflow of needy and lost people wasn't exactly helping.

Initially, Phasma refused to believe it until she saw it with her own eyes. However, when she stepped into his cabin and saw where the blast had traveled straight through his head, she felt an unfamiliar shiver travel up her spine. It had been a very, very long time since Captain Phasma had been afraid, but she was terrified when she saw the man that she had put all of her faith in shoot himself in fear. What the hell is on this ship? she thought to herself over and over again, almost lost in the question. What did he see?

Hux hadn't even bothered to make a report, let alone return to the bridge after confronting the strange, conniving Dr. Bhali. Captain Phasma couldn't imagine anything that would turn a man as ruthless and cunning as Hux to suicide, but knew for a fact that in time, she would figure it out, whether she wanted to or not. The crew that were trickling in now kept talking about crazed men and women ripping people limb from limb and climbing on the walls. They said that they were barely human, barely recognizable as the people they once were. A suffocating mist of hysteria had set in, causing each of the crew members and even some commanders and captains to yell at eachother incriminatingly. No one knew what was going on or how to fix it, and slowly but surely, they came to realize that they were running out of time to figure it out.

"It's Kylo Ren! Look, the bastard's still alive!"

Captain Phasma's eyes shot to the bay doors just as Kylo Ren came marching through. He was carrying a woman over his shoulder and seemed to have a bundle of something in his arm. A bit of relief came over Phasma as another commanding figure made his way into the hangar; hopefully he would be feeling cooperative. Stepping down from the cart she was standing on, Phasma motioned to Captain Chambra to follow her, then proceeded to march towards her shadowy target. Ren seemed to be in a hurry, and frequently yelled out for people to move out of his way, making a path for himself out of sheer force of will. A sea of people parted down the middle of the hangar as all eyes rested on the unmasked Knight of Ren.

Captain Phasma offered up a salute and greeted him. "Sir, I am happy to see that you are well." He was unphased and walked right past her, the disheveled girl on his back limp and lifeless. She looked around to see how many people had seen him snub her and frowned. Captain Chambra seemed to be too focused on his watch though to have noticed. She sighed and turned on her heels to follow the man, asking, "Who is this woman you're carrying? Does she need a medical droid?"

"No!" spat Ren, suddenly coming to a halt. He turned and looked at Phasma furiously and said, "Stay away from the medical bay; there's only more death down there. I'm taking this woman to Dreadnaught to seek help there. If you were wise you would do the same."

"What?" asked Phasma. "What do you mean?"

Everyone in close proximity to the pair were all ears, listening as intently as possible to whatever he had to say regarding death. A bit of tension seemed to sprout from where they were standing and move throughout the hangar, as slowly but surely every nervous voice was silenced. Kylo Ren looked around at the crowd before he replied, "Just get off of the ship. There's no saving it now." He adjusted Minerva over his shoulder and said, "I'm leaving."

Without another word, he simply kept walking, moving towards a shuttle. Phasma turned her head to look at Chambra as if to ask without asking what is going on around here, but the man was still looking at his watch. He was receiving a transmission from someone, and a crackling voice could be heard throughout the silent hangar. Chambra looked up at Phasma with a confused face.

The voice, gravelly and deep, spoke in a commanding tone.

"Don't let them off of the ship. They hurt Mother! They must pay for what they've done!"

Kylo Ren froze, his blood running cold at the familiar, haunting voice coming through the transmission. It was Dr. Bhali, the man he had just killed 20 minutes prior. Swiftly, he came to his senses and began screaming at Captain Chambra to disconnect. "End the call! End the call, damn it, you're talking to a dead man!"

Phasma watched the insane gleam in Ren's mad eyes and confused his fear for anger. Something about the whole thing made her nervous, and soon she had a gun aimed at the Jedi Killer, not knowing his reasoning. "You are not authorized to take a ship, sir. Please, step back and drop the girl. We can get her some help for that arm."

His eyes flashed to Phasma angrily. "You have no idea what you're dealing with, Captain. Put down the gun and keep to your flock. We all need to get off of the ship before this thing spreads any further!"

Phasma was about to ask him another question, but movement from the little bundle in the crook of his arm was enough to startle her. Wrapped in part of a white bedsheet was a newborn baby, its tiny arms reaching up towards Kylo Ren's face as it let out a whimpering cry. The man looked down at the baby with genuine concern, an emotion that Phasma had never seen in him before. "Whose child is that, sir?" she asked, lowering her weapon. "What is going on? Where did that baby come from?"

Ren turned his attention from the crying baby to the giant metal soldier who was staring him down through her helmet. Blandly, he gave her a brief summary. "This is Inessa Kurlish's daughter. She was delivered by the woman slung over my shoulder four days ago and was thought dead until we found her just now. Her mother is still alive, too. Dr. Bhali is keeping her chained to a table in his laboratory like a dog." He turned back around and started moving towards the shuttle. "If I were you I'd make a break for it. It's not like these things can die, you know."

"W-what? Sir, what are you talking about? Hold on- stop! Don't walk away from me, damn it!" shouted Phasma, trudging after him.

Acting like nothing out of the ordinary was going on, Kylo kept up a steady pace to the shuttle. "I shot Dr. Bhali in the head 20 minutes ago, but somehow he's come back to life thanks to the disease that's pumping through his system." he said, adjusting Minerva's body like it was a heavy backpack. "Now, I don't know about you, but usually, when dead people come back to life and start accusing me of hurting their pet science project, I want to get the hell out of there. I mean, unless you want to turn into a skinless, shrieking monster desperate for the sweet release of death."

The armored woman eyed Ren nervously, knowing that the Knight of Ren never had occasion to lie. She started to sweat at the thought of the extent of the disease that had been plaguing the ship, wondering just how many it had claimed. Trying to retain a false sense of calm, she spat, "They can't die? What is this, a ghost story? You're just trying to make a scene! Can't you see that things are already on the fritz? We need you here commanding the ship, sir, the crew is losing morale!" She balled her fists and watched as he kept walking, acting as if he hadn't heard a single word she said. Furious, she stepped up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, flipping him around to face her. "You can't leave! The general is dead! You're all we have left, sir. You're in command!"

Kylo Ren shot her a nasty look, but when he let her words sink in it was obvious that he was shocked. "What?" he mumbled in disbelief. The man he had spent five years hating was dead, and he didn't even have to be the one to kill him. Smiling rather morbidly, he was about to ask how it happened until he heard something drop to the floor. With a strange plopping sound, he looked down behind him to see that Minerva's hand had fallen off. Eyes wide at the horrifying image of her rotting flesh, Kylo quickly abandoned the idea of conversation with Phasma and reached down to grab her severed hand. Everyone around him let out a gasp, looking at the woman's dissolving arm and quivering at the sight of it, smelling the foul stench released into the air after her hand had disconnected itself. Balancing her body as he bent down, he picked up her hand and stuffed it in his pocket, unsure of what else to do with it. Bringing himself up to a standing position, he looked at Phasma once more but said nothing; his tired, nervous eyes said it all.

Thrown off by the dead limb and a frightened Kylo Ren, Phasma simply stood there and watched them enter the shuttle. When they left the hangar for Dreadnaught, no one said a word, as if their fear were a sleeping monster that would be the one to kill them in the end.

Kylo Ren placed the baby girl in an empty container aboard the shuttle, stuffing it with an emergency blanket that he found in the ship's first aid station. She seemed to be happy and fell asleep almost immediately, the journey from the medical bay just as hard on her as it was everyone else. He'd set the command shuttle to autopilot to tend to Minerva and the baby, their destination just a few minutes away. He pulled up a chair beside Minerva, whose unconscious body lay strapped into the ship's medical gurney. Ren had figured out how to pull down the oxygen mask for her, and raised up her head to pull the rubber band behind her ears.

His clothes had gotten singed in the areas where Minerva's blood had dripped onto the fabric, and not long after they had taken off from Finalizer, Ren felt a burning sensation on his thigh, a result of her severed hand bubbling and fizzing away at the fibers of his pants. For now, the hand was in a metal trash bin, which seemed to be containing it for now. His heart was beating in his chest at the thought of losing Minerva, and at every small movement she made -an inhale of breath, the twitch of an eye- he thought that the moment had come. But somehow, she was still alive. Kylo had no idea what was happening inside of her body, but he knew that it wasn't good.

The image of Minerva's friend Una completely losing it was biting at his nerves, making him watch the woman all the more intensely. What if she woke up and went insane? Would he have to kill her? Could he kill her? Ren frowned and stared out of the front window of the ship, pieces of debris and dead bodies still floating around from Starkiller Base. Letting out a sigh, he held onto her remaining hand and stroked it lovingly, praying that the little nurse that had saved his life would hold on just a little while longer.

Hey everybody! First of all, let me apologize for the super long wait time on this chapter! It took me way longer than I should have to get it up, so please please please, find it in your hearts to forgive me for my fanfiction failings. The weekend I was due to post the chapter I barely had anything written, but just as I had started working on it, a tornado came through where I live and basically destroyed everything. We were without power for a while and I was helping my dad clean up our property from where huge tree branches had fallen. Some of my neighbors didn't have power for almost 8 days, but luckily for us we were only down for a few hours. After that I just got really distracted to the point where it took me almost two extra weeks to post this! Ew! Anyway, please forgive me. I promise to stay on it until the end, and trust me folks WE ARE GETTING THERE VERY SOOOOOON~! So soon in fact, that I'm already planning my next fanfiction! So stay tuned for that mess! Anywhooo, how did you guys like this chapter? Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did you want to take it out for a nice seafood dinner and then never call it again? Leave a review in the comments and tell me how I'm doing! I LOVE to hear back from all of you lovely readers out there, and to all of you thick-and-thinners (you know who you are) thank you for always showing up to review! It really helps me and the writing process! It is SO gratifying to know that people are out there responding to my ramblings! You guys rock! See you soon for the next chapter!

- Molly

P.S. Thanks for 3,000 views! Wowee wow wow wow!