Chapter 1: Awakenings
/
"Hey, hey, hey... It's okay. You're safe now. Carth Onasi's here." He knew it wasn't rational. But after trying everything else within his current power, he swore she calmed faster when he spoke to her softly. He'd recently begun to lay his hand on the side of her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb.
He was no nurse. He was a solider, a pilot, and some might say a hero. Still, he was doing the best he could.
There was no physical cure for what she endured. Every night she appeared to be overtaken by something sinister. It came on in an instant. One moment she was stable, the next her skin boiled and her limbs flailed and she cried out like a mother grieving her child, a husband grieving his wife.
Her distress bothered him greatly. Part of it was Empathy, yes, but it was so much more. He could physically feel her cold terror pulse through him. He didn't know what to make of that — or her.
He sat on the edge of the bed whispering encouragements until whatever had hold of her let go. Then he dabbed a dingy rag in cool water and washed the beaded sweat from her brow. Did she smile faintly when he touched her?
Even unkempt and unconscious, an alluring essence swirled about her. She wasn't a great beauty, but she was striking. Any one of her features could stand on their own, with her eyes being a possible exception. He had spent hours struggling to remember what they looked like as if that would help her open them again.
She was a bit smaller than the average human woman, but incredibly fit. Whoever underestimated her in a fight, might not live to regret it. If he hadn't deemed it wildly inappropriate, he'd want to ask her training routine. Didn't want to remind her a man she didn't know examined her while she slept.
There were only two other things he knew about her.
First, she was a last-minute addition to the crew at the request of Bastila Shan. He didn't question the Jedi's odd demand at the time. It didn't matter, any answer she gave would have been twisted into a riddle. "Soon a time will come to pass when your questions are answered within." Damn Jedi. They never cared if they made sense.
Last, she was the only surviving recruit of the thousands aboard the Endar Spire. But he couldn't process the loss of life now, he had to focus on saving the lone one before him. He understood why she'd survived this long. She was incredibly resilient. Whenever there was a turn for the worse her hands balled into fists as she twitched and grimaced. Was she physically fighting death away?
The sooner she awoke the better. He was a man praised for his perceptiveness, his intuition. Almost always, his gut reaction was the right one. But he couldn't get a good read on her. Maybe that would change once she was walking, talking. When he could finally see the whites of her eyes. He had questions, and they, whether she liked it or not, had a mission. He felt sure in his gut that they would never escape Taris without each other.
/
Darkness. For a long time, there was darkness and a sharp ringing that vibrated in her ear, against her skull and down her spine.
Abruptly, the darkness was engulfed by a haunting dream. A battle, a death, and then darkness again. It visited her every night. The dreams were torture, but some relief was found in a soft light that peaked through, a shimmering sun. It cocooned her mind and soothed the violent forces overthrowing her body. The light got stronger each time it arrived until the darkness fled completely.
She awoke to find herself familiarly cocooned. A weight enveloped her. Steady snores blew tranquil breath down her back. She found a rugged hand stuffed under her bust. A dingy blanked covered them but provided none of the warmth.
A strange bed? A strange man? What took place last night? She realized she had no memory of the last few days except for the indelible sensation of her impending ruin.
But that's not what she felt now. His embrace was tender. Cozy. Safe. She closed her eyes, not to sleep, but to lie in the peacefulness of it all.
She might have laid there for eternity. But eventually, the man stirred.
/
Reassurance and face holding was not cutting it this time. She trembled so fiercely, she quaked. Instead of fever, she was frozen. Blue slowly invaded the pinkness of her cheeks. She'd never been this close to the end. He might actually lose her. He wouldn't let that happen. Not again.
No thinking, only acting. He stripped down to his essentials and dived in the bed. He buried her into his chest. His arms wrapped around, swallowing her small frame. Their legs twisted into one.
He shuddered as the warmth drained out of him. She struggled against his strength. She was difficult to contain, getting a few connecting blows to his face and gut. "Shhh… No need to worry. You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay." As he spoke, her struggles lessened, so he didn't stop speaking.
"When you wake up, I'm going to get us a feast. We'll eat, clean up, and get a good night's sleep. Doesn't that sound amazing?" He spoke of his plans after she woke up. Then he spoke of his brief time on the Endar Spire, Bastila's powers, and the attack that ensued. When he caught up to present, he spoke of personal things, his reservations about the Jedi, his time in the Mandalorian Wars, Saul Karath's betrayal. It was therapeutic somehow. He almost found himself speaking of things he purposefully tucked away.
With time, his voice blended with the cadence of her heartbeat, and the melding of their flesh lulled him into his first true rest since they crashed on Taris.
When he woke, their bodies remained a tangled mess. She was breathing, still, almost blissful. He attempted to gingerly unweave their limbs, but as he extracted his last arm, her eyes fluttered open and locked in on his own.
"Ahh… hi there?" He quickly freed his arm and realized what it must look like. He should have prepared something to say. "This isn't what it looks like."
Good save, Onasi.
"You were smashed up pretty bad, you needed heat and ah... support." He basically jumped into his pants and immediately started to feel the ground for his shirt. There was an awkward silence as he waited for her to speak. But she didn't, so he continued.
"I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you in the escape pod, do you remember?"
/
Her eyes widened. "I remember you." But not in a way he would understand. He was her light. "I'm Asira."
"Hi Asira. It's a relief to see you awake instead of thrashing around in your sleep. You might not remember, but I promised you a feast when you woke up. How's food sound?"