Noor
by jalpari
Noor's POV on everything so far.
The first and last thing that Noor saw was a blinding light and then everything disappeared into it, as if sucked in by some terrible force. When she regained consciousness, she was buried under rubble. No one heard her cries for help. Minutes, hours, maybe even days passed. She couldn't tell.
Then there were hands, pulling her out, lifting her up, saying words she couldn't quite grasp. All she could manage to say was the names of her parents. They took her to a hospital and more days passed her by. When she was strong enough to walk, she went from person to person, from one room to another, from one list to the next. But there was no sign of her family.
They told her they that very few people had survived. They told her that if anyone had been found alive, they would be in this hospital. They told her all the dead bodies that hadn't been evaporated by the cannon's beam were in another location, waiting their turn to be cremated.
She begged, screamed, commanded them to discharge her. Against their advice, she ran out of the hospital and to the location of the dead. After more begging and screaming and commanding, she was allowed to search for her parents.
Each body was either disfigured, burnt, or severely decimated. But she didn't stop. After hours and hours of looking, her heart froze when she noticed two familiar shapes. Shaking, she made her way closer. A trembling hand reached out and turned over the larger body. Her knees gave way as she saw the half burnt face of her father. Her breathing quickened, her heart was racing as she leaned over and turned the other body over.
A heartbreaking wail filled the room as she covered her face in disgust and despair. She couldn't bear to see her mother's body. Most of it was mutilated. Only a fraction of the left side of her body was intact, the skin hanging off it as if held by a single fragile thread. She saw remnants of a tattoo on her neck and knew who it was.
She fell back and hid her face in her knees as she rocked back and forth.
"No….no….no…", she chanted over and over.
Six months had passed since the Galran attack on Earth, but she was still stuck in that room filled with dead bodies. With the dead bodies of her mother and father.
Every night had been a battlefield. She dreaded sleep.
She had no desire to return to her old life, if that was even a possibility.
She found solace in working in the hospital, assisting in the rehabilitation program in any way she could. She had survived and she didn't know how or why. To her own and everyone else's surprise, she had healed quickly and was in a much better condition than the other victims. She was driven by a sense of guilt and anger. Anger that she couldn't help her parents. Guilt from being the one who survived. She would do anything in her power to prevent that from happening to any other family.
She met him one day in the lunchroom. He had lost an arm but not his spirit, unlike her. Every day spent with him, reignited her own spirit. She let him in and allowed herself to form a new if broken and bruised family with him. Her nightmares had turned into visions that she couldn't make any sense of. She would try to hold on to them in the morning, but they would always slip out of her mind's grasp.
A few more months later, a masked group of creatures descended on her. He tried to help her, but they captured him as well. They didn't want to leave any witnesses, they said. Her body fought hard until it couldn't. They injected her and when she awoke, she was surrounded by other prisoners. People from other planets, as confused and frightened as her. But at least, he was still by her side.
They dragged her to a room. She had seen others being taken over the last few days. And when they returned, they were barely alive. They always recovered but they seemed hollow, empty shells. She squinted in pain as she was pushed into a bright room.
She yelled, cried, bit, kicked, spat, roared but was overpowered. They gagged her, pinned her down, bound her, injected her over and over. As she began falling asleep, she thought she heard them talk to her. She thought they were telling her that she is helping a bigger cause. That she was on a virtuous path now. That they would change the world.
She woke up to astonished faces that quickly turned to excitement. They seemed pleased with her. A few more days passed and then, in the middle of the night, she felt a rough cloth wrap around her head. What followed was a long uncomfortable ride. When she was yanked out of her seat, she was in a new place and saw only five other prisoners. This time, he was not by her side.
Against all her hopes and prayers, he never came. She called out for him every night, wondering if he was still alive. Wondering if she was still alive. When they opened her cell and pulled her out, she knew that she was alive. That the pain would not go away. That her nightmare was still not over. That she was powerless.
She had been injected so many times that her arms had become a graveyard of bruises, clots, and scars. She knew what came next, a fading vision, a numbing body, a gentle descent into the void. But this time, there was blinding light that seemed to call out to her, fill her, embrace her. When she passed out, it felt different from the previous times.
She didn't float around in a silent void. It seemed like she was passing through an endless blue. Deeper and deeper. She felt herself being yanked just as she was emerging on the other side of it, and her body began falling back the way she came. She was dragged back by some unknown force. She couldn't tell if it was a part of the dream or if it was real, but she saw a body reach out to her as she fell back out of the blue and straight into its arms.
She was engulfed in flames but she was shivering.
She felt trapped in her own body but then, she felt a gentle soothing glow all around her that extinguished the flames inside her.
Her eyes flickered open for a brief second when she felt a soft comforting warmth around her. She saw another body holding her close. A glimpse of another person floating in the water with her.
She thought she heard the beautiful sound of lapping waves that she had always loved. She let herself drift along with them.
She couldn't breathe. She had been underwater for too long. She fought her way to the surface and came up for a long overdue breath of air. Before she could catch her breath, she saw a body looming over her, reaching for her. Her voice found its way out of her throat and she let out a shriek, barely recognizing her own voice.
She wouldn't let them get her this time. She saw a scissor from the corner of her eye. Before she knew what she was doing, she jumped at it and faced him. She would fight. She heard her voice bark and growl.
"Get away...don't come any closer."
"I won't hesitate to use this."
"I said STAY BACK."
Her head was spinning and she clutched the side of the bed with one hand, the other hand still pointing the scissor at him. She shook her head to clear the fog. He said he was here to help but she knew better than to believe him. She lunged at him, stabbing him in the arm with the scissor.
"I DON'T trust you!"
"YOU HURT ME!"
And then two more of them came inside. She was surrounded. But their words started to make sense, especially when the one who called himself Shiro said the other five prisoners were also there and they had rescued them and she was in a hospital.
"Fine, but I'll only talk to you. Everyone else has to leave."
Her mind kept alternating between relief and panic. She didn't trust them but she had no other choice. She decided to tell Shiro whatever she could remember, which wasn't much.
When she heard Pidge's voice outside the hospital door blurting out that she had been in a tub of water with her, Noor felt a tiny sense of comfort. Maybe not all of it was a dream. Maybe Pidge was the warmth she had felt floating in the water with her.
Then, another visitor appeared, a queen nonetheless. None of what she did made sense. But something in her words compelled Noor to trust her. They were going to do everything they could to rescue the other prisoners. She latched on to a tiny ray of hope, and told her the two things she had kept from Shiro. The blinding light and the deep blue.
Nothing else mattered anymore. She heard nothing. She felt nothing. She felt her tears, her joy, her hope, her soul being destroyed by the fire in the base that held the only family she had left.
She tried to stay steady and maintain a neutral face, but her breathing was out of control. It didn't help when she was told that Keith was the one going in with her. But then, Pidge's next words took her by surprise. He was the one who found her. Was he the one who had pulled her back out of the blue. Was he the one whose arms she fell into.
It didn't matter either way. She wanted to see her captor. The creature who had tormented her mind, tortured her body, terrorized her nights. But it had only made it worse. His words had sickened every corner of her mind and body.
"They'll come for her...they'll find her. And they will finish what we started."
Her family was gone. Her life as she knew it, was changed forever. And she didn't want to go back to Earth. If the danger she had been dragged into could help them find the terrorists, then so be it. She would do whatever she could to aid the team, even if it was the last thing she did.
"I want to find out what they did to me. I need to know why this happened."
She couldn't believe her eyes. A giant space wolf-dog appeared out of thin air. As she stared at the animal, it walked over to her and nuzzled against her arm. She gazed at the dog as it leaned in closer, and she slowly massaged his neck. She felt her shoulders relax ever so slightly.
She felt its master's gaze on her, but it didn't matter. She was too tired to take in everything that was being said and done as Shiro prepared them for the mission.
As she lay on her bed, she heard a cheery voice outside her door.
"Hey! Noor! It's me. Hunk. I cooked you a delicious meal. You should have it while it's hot."
She jumped out of her bed and took a peek outside. It was him. She had heard stories about Hunk. He was probably the most scared out of all the paladins. The one least likely to choose the path that he was on, had he been given a choice. But he stayed. He persevered. He pushed past his fears. And he fought bravely. She admired that about him. The fact that he was a total foodie like her was just another bonus.
She reached for the box and peered in, taking in a light sniff. Her eyes widened and then closed as she went on to inhale the scent of the food. She sighed and a sad smile spread across her face. Khichdi.
"I thought having something from home would help."
She felt something inside her thaw. Through the swamp of panic, fear and anger, a sadness emerged. And she welcomed it. And along with it came tears that she could no longer hold back. And she didn't want to. She was glad, almost thankful for them. She placed the box beside her and leapt into Hunk's arms. His soothing words were like drops of rain on her parched soul.
"It's alright. I know it must be scary being among complete strangers and not knowing what's happening. But my team is your family now. And we're going to do everything we can to find those nasty terrorists."
That night, she slept more peacefully than she had in several nights. It helped that Kosmo had stayed by her side.