Last time: A surprise homecoming occurred.

Now: The family hears the tales of what happened over the three months.

Chapter 12- Escape

Kyr held Cien, he knelt on the ground, holding her to his chest as around him the Bloodstorm shuddered under the pummeling it was absorbing. The ship was dying. Kyr paid it no mind, he was at peace.

He had lied to the others. Cien had given him no way off the ship. He just wanted to stay here, to keep his promise to her that he would not leave her alone again. That he would stay until he needed to leave.

And he didn't feel a need to leave.

For all the times Death had visited him in his life, this was a moment when he would greet that old friend without a struggle. He hugged her closer and closed his eyes, remembering back to a perfect moment in a dining far, far away from this place as the ship shook and he heard distant explosions. Remembering the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"You stayed." Cien's voice said in a quiet whisper.

His eyes shot open. Her body shimmered in his arms and his embrace loosened as he looked upon her with shock. The mortal wound that had claimed her faded and moved up to her left shoulder. Still a grievous injury, a blaster wound, but it was not a shot that would have killed her. He looked up at her eyes, and they fluttered open as her features spoke of the life that was within. Their eyes locked.

"I promised you would never be alone again cyar'ika." He said, his voice filled with disbelief and shock as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

She smiled through a grimace of pain as she used her good arm to reach up and caress his face. He closed his eyes, cherishing the feeling. The need to escape, to get her someplace safe flooded into him. His appointment with that old friend would have to wait for another day far in the distance as his resolve hardened. The hangar bay was far away, but they would make it. The Shadow Runner would be gone, but there would be other ships he would take. He made to pick her up.

"I can walk." She stated as she grimaced in pain. The Bloodstorm shook from a major explosion as if to emphasize how tenuous their survival was. He lowered her gently, and helped her to her feet as she stood, grimacing from her injury as she cradled her arm. "There's an escape tunnel over behind the third column, it leads to my personal hangar, where my ship is." She said.

"Perfect." Kyr said as he started moving.

"Kyr!" She said, looking at him.

"What?" He said, looking at her, startled.

"Your helmet!"

"Oh, right!" He ran back and grabbed the buy'ce where he had discarded it. "Do you mind if I put it on?" He asked as he ran back to her side.

"No." She said with a smile as they started getting to the tunnel. The hatch was built into the obsidian wall, expertly crafted, Kyr couldn't even see where the crack was.

"I only found out about this two years ago, when I finally looked at this room." She said, as she held up her right hand and used the Force to activate the mechanism. A section of the obsidian slid backward, and then rotated out, revealing a small transport car that led down a rail system towards the hangar bays. They stepped inside, and the door closed behind them. The car shot off, so fast they felt the acceleration despite the inertial dampeners. Cien fell back against him with a hiss of pain, and he caught her, supporting her.

"How is this possible?" He finally asked.

"They needed to think that I had died." She said, around the obvious pain she was in. "I needed Ikari to think that she didn't need to worry about me, so we can take care of her before she hurts the others." She finished.

He remembered the look the troopers had stared at him with as she had passed away in his arms, he swallowed reliving that moment. "Please don't ever do that to me again." He whispered, as she leaned against him in the small car.

"I'm sorry," she whispered back, "They needed to think it was real. Sasha and you needed to think it was real so they would report it back to Ikari. I'm sorry."

"I understand, you don't need to apologize. Just don't do that to me again." He pleaded, so very happy to be holding her alive and mostly well. As if it sparked his memory, he reached down and pulled out a bacta ampule from his medical kit and gave it to her. "Here." He said, handing it to her.

She reached to take it from his hands and grimaced with the pain from the movement. "Can you…?" She asked, trailing off.

"Of course." He said. He snapped the head off and exposed the hypospray needle. "Sorry." He said, grimacing as he put the injection head to her right arm.

"It's fine." She said with a grimace. She relaxed a little as it started taking the edge off the pain, and about the time the taste of zherries usually hit he noticed a slight smile flash across her face.

They arrived, the hangar was in disarray. The bulkheads that kept it seperate from the rest of the main hangar deck had opened when the car from the evacuation tunnel had arrived. Her personal ship, her sleek and sinister looking oversized fighter. He recognized it from when it flew over him at the research garrison from that temple so long ago. The Bloodstorm still shuddered and bucked, and some scaffolding from the ceiling had fallen across the ship, It had taken no damage though. They could look out into space through the hangar opening and see the barrage of fire pouring into the Bloodstorm. They made it across the hangar deck quickly and got to the fighters hatch.

Cien stopped, and took one last look around the hangar, one last look at the Bloodstorm before entering the ship. Kyr stood by her silently, feeling the rush of the death throes urgently telling them to leave, but wanting to give her this last moment to look. He watched a wash of memories play across her face, of a lifetime that had been spent on this ship. The thousands of years that this ship had been a part of her life. Kyr got a private message from Tac on his visor, advising him the Shadow was away, and asking for rendezvous coordinates. He stayed silent at her side.

"I'm glad it's dead." She said with a final look of anger, and then she turned to her fighter and keyed it open. Kyr followed her into the small living space beyond, and they moved toward the cockpit. It was a two seat design, one behind the other, with a small walkspace on the side that allowed the occupants to access the tandem seats. As they were heading through the hatchway a huge explosion knocked them from their feet, and Cien cried out in pain as her shoulder was slammed against the door, and she hit her head and fell to the ground. Kyr instantly righted himself and checked on her, she was laying limp. Unconscious, but still fine, still stable. He picked her up and placed her gently in the bunk. Through the cockpit windows he could see that one of the prows of the ship had exploded off as a series of explosions rippled up and down its length. The dagger like appendage was free floating in space, pinwheeling back towards their hangar in odd slow motion.

"Osik." He said. He checked to make sure she was secure on the bunk and ran to the pilot's chair. He looked at the controls, they seemed simple and standard enough. He ran through the startup sequence and jammed the thrust controls forward, shooting out of the hangar as her lithe fighter responded instantly. He rolled the ship and headed downward, just as the broken prow of the Bloodstorm scythed through the hangar they had just been in. He could see on the rear scope how devastated the Bloodstorm truly was, it was a flaming wreck, covered in explosions and twisted in damage. He set a destination. Behind him the Bloodstorm exploded, fragmenting into huge pieces as a bright flash of light and an incredible cloud of debris spread out. He jammed the hyperspace lever forward and they escaped.

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