As he began to become aware of what was around him, he felt as if he was floating. Effortlessly. The liquid felt thick and warm. So, he wasn't in a natural body of water. He tried to listen to what was around him, but he couldn't hear anything. He couldn't figure out why. Or was there nothing to hear? Where was he?
Kallus spent hours hovering in the warm, thick, gelatinous substance in a daze. He stayed in the state between sleep and consciousness. He tried to pull himself toward one or the other, but he didn't have any luck. He was just there.
At some point he felt the pulling away of the gooey substance from his body and a chill replaced it as the warmth that it had brought faded away. He then felt himself on a soft surface. A bed, perhaps. Once there, he felt a warm sensation once more.
After he was placed on the soft bed something forced one of his eyes open and followed by a bright light; then the process repeated with the other. He wanted to recoil from the brightness of it, but he couldn't. As the light receded, though, he heard muffles. He couldn't distinguish anything past the fact that there was now sound whereas before there had been utter silence. After a while the muffles changed in tone and tenor a bit and they lulled him back to the bliss of nothingness.
Sabine finished her shift of keeping Kallus company and headed back to the Shadow Chaser. Kiara had come in after her. She'd been training with Kanan when Kallus had first been taken out of the bacta tank, so she'd taken the first shift.
She knew that Hera would be coming in later in the day and she looked forward to seeing her as well as getting her first good look at hers and Kanan's baby boy. The child would be a welcomed distraction from what was going on.
If anyone had told her a couple of years ago that she'd be so worried about the man back in the infirmary she wouldn't have believed it. To say that she hated the man when he was working for the Empire would have been a mild way to put it. Now she considered him a friend. A friend who had sacrificed himself so that the rest of them could escape on Suaren. Kallus wasn't the same man he'd been when he'd first been assigned to rid the sector that Lothal was in of rebels. That man wouldn't have done what the one lying in the medical bay right now had done.
When she got back to the common room on the ship, she sat at the dejarik table and figured that she could use a distraction. Kanan and Zeb were in a holo-meeting with the leadership for the daily briefing and knew that they would likely be busy until Hera showed up later in the day.
As she was considering a move while playing the game she glanced over and saw a datapad on the couch. She'd seen Kiara absorbed in it nearly every time that she didn't have anything else to do. Curious, Sabine stood and walked over to it. She picked it up and went to turn it on but stopped.
Why did she feel like she was invading Kiara's privacy?
Sabine shook her head to shake off the thought. It was just a datapad that she always leaves right out in the open. It wasn't like she was snooping around in her cabin. She pushed the button to activate the device and saw that it was left off on what looked to be an article from the holonet. She scrolled a bit to find the subject matter of it and paused.
Purrgil?
Why would she be reading about purrgil?
Sabine put the datapad back down and backed away from it as if it was a dangerous explosive. She went back to sit at the dejarik table, but her mind was no longer on the game.
Ezra had disappeared when he and the Imperial forces were pulled away from Lothal by the purrgil. There hadn't been any sight of the young man since then. They had tried to discern the trajectory of the purrgil's jump into hyperspace, but they hadn't been able to find anything. She hated to admit it, but they had been forced to abandon the search. And since then, there had been so much going on...
Sabine looked back at the datapad across the room. She wondered...
Kiara walked around Kallus's room as she once more tried to keep up a running commentary of her life as well as nearly anything else that she could think of to try to reach past the haze that he was trapped in. The medical staff had said that his latest exam after the bacta treatments had shown that he was healing up well. The bones were mended, and his internal injuries had all but been forgotten. That was all well and good, but he still wasn't awake. Even the miracle fluid hadn't brought his mind back even as it healed his body. For that, they could only wait to see what would happen.
In frustration, Kiara sat down next to Kallus on the bed facing him. She wished she knew what was going on in his head. Could he even hear her or the rest or were they wasting their breath trying to talk to him?
She reached for his hand and felt the way it was so limp. No response at all. She intertwined his fingers with hers and sat there facing him for a while. With only the sounds of the machines monitoring Kallus to break the silence.
She closed her eyes and did her best to meditate. She focused on Alexsandr and waded through darkness to find the light that represented his life force. It was brighter than it had been before. Stronger. That was comforting. She wanted to reach out and touch that light. Wanted to pull it toward herself. Wanted for it to push the darkness away to make room for it.
"Alex," Kiara said softly as she remained focused. She focused on Alex. Focused on his breathing. Focused on her own to match his. "You have to come back to me. I'm not quite ready to let you go. Not like this. Not now. Probably not ever."
Outside of Kallus's room someone dropped something and pulled Kiara out of her meditation. She looked up and glanced toward the door and realized what had happened and shook her head. Accidents happen.
She turned her attention back to the man before her and wondered how long he would stay as he was. The doctor's had stated that he didn't require anymore bacta treatments. The fluid had healed his injuries. He'd face therapy once he woke up but for now, there wasn't anything else for them to do. For Kiara, which was scarier to hear than it had been to watch the staff first take him from her ship. At least then, they were doing something. They had a plan. But now?
Taking in a deep sigh Kiara moved her hand to put Kallus's back down onto the bed. That was when she noticed something. It wasn't a large difference, but it was there. His hand wasn't resting as limply as it had been earlier.
"Alex?" Kiara's heart sped up in anticipation. "Alex? Can you hear me?"
She waited for several moments while trying to take in everything at once. Were his eyes moving? No. Was that a twitch of a brow? Maybe? No. It wasn't. She focused on the hand in her own.
"Alex, I'd really like for you to give me some sort of sign. Can you move any part of your hand for me? Just a little. It doesn't have to be much?"
Kiara remained hyper-focused as she sat in strained silence, willing the man to respond but didn't want to push any further. If he was aware of what was going on, and he was trying, her repeated requests would only serve to frustrate him. After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour she relaxed, where she sat and squeezed the hand that she was holding.
"Maybe tomorrow," Kiara said while trying to sound positive. Maybe she'd imagined the whole thing. It was just wishful thinking.
When the Ghost landed in the hanger of the medical ship Kanan and the rest of his crew waited anxiously for Hera to finish the shutdown procedures before the ramp was extended. Then they raced up to see both mother and child. When they got inside, they found Hera coming out of her cabin with the baby. Sabine had helped to create a crib that could be used to strap the baby in when she was flying. A must for the kind of flying she tended to need to do when on missions. And even when not on missions, one never knew when things would go sideways.
"There are my two favorite people in the galaxy," Kanan said as he reached Hera and took the baby from her.
Zeb nudged Sabine, "Should we be insulted that we aren't included as being part of his favorite people?"
Sabine laughed. "I don't know about you, but I am highly insulted. I personally feel that I'm absolutely delightful to be around."
"You can be," Kanan responded as he nestled his son against him, "But you have some really stiff competition."
"I suppose I do," Sabine nodded as she stepped closer to see the sleeping baby. He looked to have inherited a lot of Kanan's DNA since he looked mostly human but he had a slight green color to his skin that spoke to his Twi'lek parentage. "He is so cute."
"More so when he's sleeping," Hera said as she grinned. "Not so much when he's not happy. So, let's try not to wake him up just yet." She looked around and then asked, "How is Kallus?"
Zeb and Sabine looked at one another as Kanan shook his head. "He still hasn't woken up. The doctors have done what they can but... The fact that he hasn't come to, yet, doesn't look good."
Hera looked down as she took in the news. She hated to hear that about their friend. From what she'd heard, the man had willingly stayed behind so that the those on the Shadow Chaser could get away. Not an easy decision to make; especially knowing full-well what that would mean for him. He, better than anyone, would have been aware of what was in store for him when he gave the order for the ship to leave.
"How is your sister handling it?" Hera asked. She'd also heard about her brush with the dark side and Kanan's concern for her. Though to be honest, if she had the power and someone did the same to Kanan, she'd be more than just a little tempted to do the same thing that Kiara had nearly done.
"Still hanging in there but we all know that the longer it takes for Kallus to wake up the less likely that he will wake up at all. Once..." Kanan didn't allow himself to finish that thought. Hera nodded since she understood. He didn't have to say more.
"Well, let's go see those two. It's been too long."
Kiara looked up as she heard the crew of the Ghost all make their way into the room in the infirmary.
"Thought we'd bring the party here so that you and Kallus both could join us," Kanan said as he sensed the question before his sister could ask as they entered.
"And it's okay? You know, with the staff?"
"I pointed out that if they thought that having one of us in here talking to Kallus would help then the effects would only be multiplied if there were more of us in here," Kanan grinned.
"And how could they do anything but agree in the face of such reasoning," Kiara released Alex's hand and stood to face the group. As she stepped closer to get her first really good look at the baby in her brother's arms, he asked her if she wanted to hold him. Kiara took a moment before she shook her head. "He's sleeping. And I know the saying, anyone who wakes a sleeping child is responsible for getting him back to sleep."
Hera snickered. "I haven't heard that, but I think I'll have to remember it," she said as she gave the others a meaningful look.
"I'm sure you'll find that the rest will try to be a lot quieter while Jacen sleeps, now," Kiara let out a soft laugh.
"Good. Though once we move on to the new base, that should still offer its own challenges." The Twi'lek shook her head.
She and the others were asked to help set up the new base after they had to abandon Suaren. General Dodonna's transport hadn't made it out so many of the higher ranked officers were killed during the raid on the last base. That meant that they needed as many of the experienced fighters as they could get to help lead the cell. The crew of the Ghost was among the most skilled and they were needed on the front lines of the war against the Empire.
In the darkness that had become his normal, he listened as the muffles that had soothed his mind changed. There were many muffles rather than one. He still couldn't separate the sounds; no words made it past the haze that he'd been surrounded by since... How long has he been here. Or has he always been here? Has there ever been a before?
When the muffles grew, he felt an absence. He couldn't describe it. Just that he'd lost something. He tried to reach through the darkness and pull it back to him. He ignored the sounds. They didn't mean much to him anyway. He just focused on reaching for the presence that had been there with him before it left. It made him feel... Made him feel like the galaxy wasn't trying to spin him around in every direction at once. It had stilled him.
He just had to reach out and bring it back to him. He needed it to stop the sensation of endless falling through space.
Zeb was telling the others of his latest conversation with Rex over subspace and how the man had already started to work with Wolffe to set up the new base's security. They both, however, welcomed his and Sabine's help once they arrived to help set up the systems and equipment. Especially Sabine with her ingenuity. He was about to joke as he turned to face Kiara that she may be asked to go back to Canto Bight when he looked past the woman to Kallus behind her. That's when he caught sight of movement.
"Hey, did any of you see that?"
Everyone turned their attention to where Zeb was indicating. It was Kiara who asked, "See what?"
"His hand. It moved. Flexed." Zeb and the rest of the crew waited in silence to see if the man would move again. It had been the first real sign of life, progress, since he'd first been extracted from the cell on the Star Destroyer. His heart raced as he waited. Waited for anything. "Kallus?" He finally spoke up as he saw Kiara sit back on the bed to face him. She grabbed his hand then pulled back, realizing that if he did move his hand the others may not be able to see it. "Can you do that again?"
The silence seemed deafening as each person's attention was focused on the man in the bed. Kanan stretched out his senses and could feel a change in the man that he hadn't sensed in the many days that they'd been on the Med-ship. It was like he was trying to muddle through a thick darkness that wanted to pull him back. But he was trying. Trying to come back to the land of the living. Back to the people, or the person, that he cares about.
When another slight twitch of the hand was made the entire room erupted in cheers of relief. That then woke the sleeping baby.
"Oops," Sabine recoiled just a bit from the shrill screams as the two parents started to work together to try to quieten the child. "So, Kiara. Does this mean we all have to help put the baby back to sleep?"
"I suppose we all have to take a shot at it until someone can actually succeed," she said with a sigh. She reached forward from where she sat and took Alex's hand and watched as Kanan handed his son over to Hera as she tried to soothe the baby. She figured that they were better suited to calming the screaming babe.
She'd stay where she was and focused on Alex, instead. At least until it was time for her to return to her ship for a few hours. Unfortunately, the others would leave the next day on the Ghost. That meant that she would be the only one to remain to wait for Alex to wake up. She knew that none of them wanted to leave but they were needed. The war doesn't stop for one person.
