Last time: Sasha and Kyr talked about what happened, but she is struggling.

Now; Sasha gets a bacta treatment.

Chapter 8- Bacta and Nightmares

Viran sat in a chair against the back wall of the bacta chamber room watching as his wife floated inside a bacta tank. This morning, after a fairly sound night of sleep, Viran headed straight for the medical bay to check on Sasha and to relieve Cien from watching Sasha all night. When he got there, Kelce and Cien were quietly chatting off to the side as a few of the medics were preparing to move Sasha out of the room. Kelce informed them that Sasha was going to be transported to the bacta chamber for treatment. He said that it could take the whole day, and advised them to go grab some breakfast or do something else for a while. Viran was hesitant about leaving her alone, especially after Kyr stopped by briefly last night to tell him about what happened when the Mando watched over her. So he knew fully well that Sasha wouldn't want to be alone, but Kelce assured him that he would be there the whole time. And that he would contact them the moment Sasha was done and being moved to the recovery room. Neither Viran nor Cien were truly comfortable with leaving Sasha, but they did so begrudgingly after much convincing from Kelce. They then left to venture off into the rest of the ship until Kelce would call them, doing whatever they could to pass the time.

However, around mid-to late afternoon Viran headed back to the medical wing just to check on her progress. Throughout the day, he could barely sit still as he wanted to be by her side the whole time. Kyr and Scamp, however, made it clear to him that Kelce knew what he was doing and that Sasha would be alright. But when no one was looking and he had a private moment to himself, Viran snuck off to the medical wing. He was honestly surprised when Kelce allowed him to come sit in the final minutes of Sasha's bacta treatment. He expected to be turned away or even asked to remain in the main area of the bay. But instead, Kelce let him come in. The doc could probably tell just how anxious Viran was to return to her side and didn't see the harm in letting him see her as things wrapped up.

It was weird to see her floating like that in the tank. He had never seen a proper bacta treatment before, so this was a new experience. Sasha was suspended in the tank by a harness that was attached to the bacta suit she wore, which covered only her lower half and her chest. However, he could see her injuries and scars more clearly. The bruising had gone down quite a bit that they were hardly noticeable on her skin. The smaller cuts healed to thin white lines. Her leg was in a bacta proof brace and he could see the swelling on it had diminished. Even the incision line along her abdomen was healing nicely from what he could tell. But the one thing he kept staring at was the claw marks on her shoulder.

She had been in the tank for hours and the marks were still there. He never saw what they had initially looked like, but from what Oppie had described it was fairly gruesome. The skin was healing around the wound, but the skin was still very red and bruised. It was even scarring over the open wounds. That mark was where the infection came from. That mark was practically a permanent symbol on Sasha now of the nightmare that was Myrkr. He continued to stare at it until her eyes fluttered open and met his.

The world felt… strange. Like she was floating in a gelatin like substance. Slowly opening her eyes, the first thing Sasha noticed was the color blue. Everything was blue. Then as her vision focused, she noticed that she was inside of a bacta tank looking out into a room that was full of medics and droids tending to her. She spotted Kelce as he smiled at her before turning to talk to another medic, and then she spotted Viran in the back of the room. Her husband smiled at her and provided a small wave in her direction. Carefully raising her hand, she was prepared to wave back when suddenly she felt the harness she was wearing being pulled upward.

Viran and the room disappeared as she was pulled out of the top of the bacta tank into the loading room by two medics, and set down near the edge. One of them removed the rebreather in her mouth as she gasped for air. This was the first time since arriving at the Valor that she wasn't using assisted breathing equipment. However, it still hurt to breathe as she coughed in response.

"Easy," One of them said as she gently rubbed Sasha's back which helped stop her coughing.

The two medics were quick to get her cleaned up. The one used a wet sponge to clean off the sticky bacta goop off of her before using a towel to dry her, being gentle around her injuries that were still tender. While the other was already reapplying fresh bandages to her wounds. One of the bandages was placed across her midsection and the other was on her right shoulder. That same medic also switched out the brace she was wearing for a proper cast that wasn't bacta proof, she guessed.

The harness was then removed from her as a medical gown was put on. These two medics were moving so fast to get her cleaned up and dressed that Sasha barely absorbed what just happened. Still a little delirious from the bacta treatment and the medication that was finally wearing off that kept her under for so long. Then as soon as they finished, they moved her onto a nearby stretcher. One of them replaced the cannula into her nose while the other gave her a sedative to help her relax. After that, Sasha didn't recall as her world swirled to black once again as the medics took her away.

Sasha stood in the middle of the dense forest of Myrkr. The air was incredibly still and there was the distant sounds of blaster fire as if they were hundreds of kilometers away. Looking around, Sasha tried to figure where she was in the forest. And where was Oppie. She noticed that she was in fact alone, standing in the middle of a clearing. The blaster fire got closer and closer as if it was charging at her from beyond the foliage. Unholstering her blaster, Sasha took a readied stance as she whipped around, trying to figure out where the blaster fire was coming from. Then it went off from her left and a pained scream was heard.

Oppie.

Sasha bolted in that direction as fast as she could. But the closer she got the more sluggishly her body started to move as if she was fine one moment and then the next all her injuries returned to greet her with a wave of pain. Wincing with each step, Sasha kept going towards the sound until she emerged from the treeline. Before her was the river. The same river spot where Oppie was facing down the Mauldalorian. Looking around frantically now, she spotted Oppie pinned to the ground with a large blade to his neck by that very hunter.

"NO! STOP!" Sasha screamed as she rushed forward.

Using her blaster, she fired off as many rounds as she could, but the gun just wouldn't shoot. Tossing it aside, she reached for her own knife to stop the hunter, but her knife wasn't there. So instead, she just kept running forward to tackle the hunter over. But as she kept running it was like nothing was moving. As if she was on a treadmill and was only running in place. She couldn't get closer as the scene seemed to stretch her further and further away. She felt tears fall as she tried to scream out to Oppie, but her voice was gone. Nothing escaped her lips. Just puffs of air.

Then the bounty hunter sliced and Oppie's head fell. Sasha screamed at that then in a flash everything suddenly started working for her again. She shot forward in an instant and knocked the bounty hunter aside as she laughed at Oppie's dead form. Sasha knelt down beside him, ignoring her, and gently tried to wake him as blood seeped from the wound on his neck.

"Oppie, please open your eyes," she begged as she applied pressure to the wound. But it was pointless. He was gone. She was too late. "OPPIE! NO! PLEASE! OPPIE!" She continued to cry.

"OPPIE!" Sasha screamed out as her eyes flew open and she shot up into an upright position on the bed. Instantly that was a really bad idea as her still sore body protested the violent movement all of the sudden. Sasha collapsed back against the bed with a gasp as wrapped her left arm around herself, her right arm twitching in its looser sling. Her shoulder and leg both screaming the loudest at her for her quick movements.

"Sasha, it's okay!" Kitsu said, jumping to her feet and moving to the side of the bed.

Breathing ragged, Sasha tried to calm down as the pain slowly faded away, but the nightmare still burned into her mind. She remained in her curled up position as she felt tears stain her cheeks. "No… Oppie…" She whimpered.

"It was just a nightmare, Op's fine." Kitsu said very worriedly. "It's okay."

"Kitsu?" Sasha whispered as she looked up from her fetal position. She then closed her eyes and tried to hide her face into the pillow. "I'm sorry."

Kitsu leaned over and wrapped an arm around her. "It's okay Sasha."

Sasha leaned into her. This was the first time she could recall Kitsu comforting her like this. Well except when Kitsu was by her side when she was in labor with Lana, helping her through a couple of bad contraction moments. But this was different. Oppie, Viran and Cien were the only ones to ever see her like this after a nightmare. She almost felt embarrassed by it, but the nightmare was more her problem than her crying in front of her cousin. She lay there for a while, finally calming down. "Thank you," she said after a long moment of silence as her body stopped shaking and relaxed against the mattress.

"No problem vod'ika." Kitsu said quietly. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Sasha said, tiredly. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"That's okay." Kitsu said, stepping away slightly. "Bad nightmare?" She asked.

"Yeah," Sasha said, turning her gaze away as she laid back out onto the bed. She winced slightly as she did that, but the pain subsided quickly. "You could say that."

"Anything you want to talk about?" She asked.

Sasha cleared her throat as she looked down at her lap. "I was back on Myrkr. And Oppie was fighting that Mando," she hesitated. "But I didn't make it in time. She killed him before I could get there." She whispered.

"Oh, yeah she was kind of a piece of osik." Kitsu said. "She's given me nightmares a few times." Kitsu said with a slightly joking shudder.

Sasha glanced up at her. "You knew her personally?"

"Not really, more professionally than anything else." Kitsu answered. "We, uh, competed for the same… contracts on occasion, and we didn't like each other much." Kitsu answered a little ruefully.

"Oh," Sasha replied as she lowered her gaze.

"I'm sorry all of that happened to you Sasha." Kitsu said quietly. "We did a contract for Von years ago, but we decided never to work for him again because this is the kind of thing he'd do. A lot of bounty hunters out there are not good people, we try to steer clear of them. I'm sorry you had to encounter the worst of them." Kitsu said quietly.

"It's okay," Sasha said just as quiet. "I have met bounty hunters before when I used to work in canteens and bars. I know there are good ones and ones that are just the worst. But these…" She paused. "They were willing to hunt for us like we were animals. That's… everytime I think about it, it makes me nauseous." She shuddered.

"Yeah, well they're gone now." Kitsu said, "along with most of the ones we know who would do a bounty like that. You guys did the galaxy a favor."

"Then why do I feel guilty?" Sasha asked. "I know everyone keeps telling me that I am a better person than they are, but I can't get over the fact that I stabbed that woman in the throat with a knife. Yes, I saved Oppie, but if this nightmare proved anything is that it was too close. I almost lost Oppie because of her. And I feel anger and fear and…" She realized she was rambling. Turning her gaze away as she just stopped talking.

"You feel guilty because you are the sweetest person we've ever met." Kitsu replied, "You're the kind of person who will forgive someone who tried to kill you, and someone who will go out of your way to not kill someone who is gunning for you or the people you love." She paused for a moment, "what are you feeling anger and fear over?"

Sasha was silent for a moment as she thought about it. "I'm angry at myself for falling into Von's trap. I'm angry at the hunters for hurting me and Oppie. But I was afraid that I was going to lose Oppie. I was afraid that I would never see you guys again. And I'm afraid that… that this isn't over." She then whispered. "And I'm afraid of what happens if I'm alone again. That's never happened before. I've never felt that way before. And that scares me."

"Von did his research very thoroughly, that's what he does… did. That's why he was considered so good." Kitsu said, "so don't be angry at yourself for falling into a trap that was so well designed." She paused for a second, "and you're right. This isn't over, we still need to figure out who hired him, and we will need your help to do it. You won't ever be alone again, not if Viran has anything to say about it." She said with a slight smirk.

"I guess you're right," Sasha said, smirking at that. "Thanks Kitsu. I… I needed to get that off my chest."

"No problem. Ci'ika might think she's the big sister now, but I'm still holding onto that title." She replied with a smirk.

Sasha chuckled at that. "Yeah, no one can take that title from you," she agreed with a smile.

The curtain moved slightly and Illara stepped in, carrying a deck of sabacc cards and a set of chips. "Oh, hey Sasha. Want to be dealt in?" They asked.

"Hey Illara. Yeah, that sounds nice," Sasha said with a nod.

"Sasha and I were just affirming that I'm still the oldest sister." Kitsu said beaming.

"Don't tell Cien that." Illara said, scooting one of the trays over to use as a gaming table.

Sasha chuckled at that as she straightened up on the bed, adjusting the sling. "I won't."

"How are you feeling?" Illara asked as they pulled one of the stools over, and Kitsu started shuffling the cards.

"Better," Sasha answered. "Things are still sore and tender, but I'm just glad to be able to breathe without that damn tube in my nose," she said, slightly irritated when mentioning the cannula. "Kelce said my lung is mostly healed, but it'll still hurt to breathe if I over exert myself or anything too strenuous."

"We'll save the sparring matches for next week then." Illara said with a grin.

Kitsu started dealing the cards out as she spoke, "I always hate being stuck in the medbay. Never had a lung injury though."

"I don't recommend it," Sasha joked slightly. "But I can't wait to get out of here. I may love working in a medbay, but I'm ready to get back home."

"Yeah, no kidding." Kitsu said. "Though it is fun visiting the 19th again, we missed out last time."

"Yeah, it is good to see them again too," Sasha said. "I just wish under… different circumstances." She then paused. "Well actually I've only seen Kelce. I haven't seen the others this time."

"Most of them are still over on the Defiant, I think they wanted to come over and say hi, or maybe have us over for dinner once you're up to it." Illara replied.

"I'd like that," Sasha said softly with a smile. "I'd like that a lot."

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