Chapter 13
Finally, for the first time in hours, the cockpit of the transport Leia was on was silent. They had made contact with all other transports and squadrons after hours of trying and failing, the course was set, and they were finally running smoothly. Of course, it couldn't stay that way for long.
"General Organa?"
"Yes, Captain Leighton?"
"We've received a message from the Millennium Falcon. They want to speak with you personally."
"The Millennium Falcon," Poe asked, jumping up from his seat. Finn who was sitting next to him jumped up as well.
"Patch them through Captain."
After a few moments, a holo appeared from the table in the center of the cockpit. Much to everyone's surprise, it wasn't Rey or Allana standing there. It was a strange man.
"Who are you, and why do you have my ship" asked Leia.
"My name is Jack Brahms. Allana was staying with me on Tatooine. We met a couple years ago when she left the first time."
"And why isn't she with you now?"
"Shortly after Rey arrived to see her, I got intel that said Kylo Ren was on Tatooine. The two of them went to go stay in a safe house because we thought it would just blow over soon. When the attack started, I sent a message telling them that they needed to head to their ships to get off the planet."
"So why aren't they on their ships," Leia, asked a dangerous edge creeping into her voice.
"Once I got their clearance to leave, I commed them. It seems they had run into a little trouble."
"How little," Poe said, walking over to stand at Leia's side.
"Poe go sit down," Leia hissed at him.
"I am not going to sit down. You can demote me if you want, but I'm staying right here."
Leia stared at him as if deciding what to say. Eventually she sighed and turned back to the holo.
"What happened Jack?"
"I didn't hear this from them, I heard it from one of your troops who was on Tatooine. Apparently, they found them being backed into a corner by stormtroopers. Allana had already been hit once in her thigh, but they didn't think it was serious. One of them got Rey in the wrist, and when she dropped her guard to examine it, one of them aimed to kill. Allana was able to kill him, but not before he shot."
"Is Rey alright?"
"She's fine. You see, when Allana shot the trooper, his aim was thrown off."
"It shot her instead," Poe said his face growing pale.
"Yes."
"How bad is it," Leia asked."
Jack hesitated for a moment.
"You hesitated. That means it's really bad."
"She was shot in the stomach. The Resistance fighters were able to take out the storm troopers before they could do any more damage, but Allana wasn't able to walk."
"What happened to them?"
"I'm getting to that. If they stayed in the city, they would die, and there was no chance of them getting to the shipyard. They told me to take the Falcon to your base, and they sent one of your fighters to bring Rey's X-wing. They somehow found a speeder and were headed to this abandoned moisture farm outside of the city. It's normally fairly well stocked with water and medical supplies."
"Okay," Leia said in a shaky voice, "okay. Jack, how fast do we need to get to them?"
"Probably very quickly. The medical supplies available should be able to ward off infection and keep any of their wounds mostly closed, but based on what I heard, that's not what Allana needs. There's a pretty sever danger of her bleeding out if we don't get there fast enough."
"Alright. Jack, our base isn't fully set up yet, so I'm going to send you coordinates and send someone to meet you there with a medic. You will take them back to Tatooine and rescue the girls. Then they will drop you off at your home, and they will fly the Falcon back. You need to tell them exactly, and I mean exactly, what you just told me."
"I will General."
"Are there any damages to the Falcon we need to know about?"
"She took some pretty heavy hits on the way out, but nothing that should keep her from getting to Tatooine and back to your base."
"Good. Expect to hear from someone soon. Organa out."
The holo switched off, and Leia sank down into a chair. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and closed her eyes. The entire cockpit stood there in silence, not moving, not doing anything. Slowly she opened her eyes and sat up.
"Someone send a message to Master Skywalker. Tell him that he needs to take an escape pod or something to the coordinates that I sent to Jack and tell him that I'll comm him later with more details. Does anybody know what transport the medical supplies are on?"
"Number 5, General."
"Good. That's the one Luke is on, yes? Okay tell them to send a medic and any supplies they think they might need for deep blaster wounds and blood loss with him."
"Doing it right now."
Poe and Finn approached her, but before they could say anything, she held up her hands stopping them.
"I know what you're going to say, so don't waste your breath. You are not going. If you want to help them, the best thing you can do is help us set up the med bay on our new base."
"With all due respect General," Finn began.
"No. I rank higher than you, which mean I get to tell you what to do. My answer is no. End of discussion."
Leia then stood up and walked out of the room.
"I'm comming Master Skywalker in my room," Leia said over her shoulder, "don't come in unless there's an emergency."
…
On Tatooine, the race to get to safety was not going well. The suns were glaring down on them, making it dangerously hot, and the only directions that Rey had been given was just go south. She was having to dodge stray shots from the TIE-fighters and X-wings, and on top of all that, Allana was losing more blood by the minute and was drifting in and out of concisousness.
"We're almost there Allana," She said shaking the woman softly. "I need you to just stay with me a little longer."
Allana just groaned in response. They were driving along a tall cliff face, and Rey couldn't help but feel like they were being watched. Rey glanced down at the controls. They had driven 49 miles so far. She let out a sigh of relief. They were almost there. She could see the moisture farm in the distance. Then, the speeder died. Rey stopped and restarted the engine three times. Then, she glanced down at the fuel gage.
"It's out of fuel," she mumbled under her breath, "just my luck."
She looked at the building in the distance, and then at the woman behind her. She couldn't get to the building. There was no way. If she left Allana, the Sand People might kill her, and there was a possibility that she could collapse on the way. She scanned the horizon for any ships coming their way. Nothing. She pulled the comm link off Allana shirt and flipped it on.
"Jack? Jack, can you hear me?"
"Rey…what's…okay…where."
"I can't hear you! There's too much static. The speeder died. We're almost exactly a mile from the farm. I can see it. You have to come get us."
"Coming…Resistance…Luke…medic…alm-"
"The comm link just went out," Rey muttered in disbelief. "The galaxy hates me today."
She flung it down on the sand and climbed off the speeder.
"Okay Allana. I'm going to get you off the speeder."
"Kay," she said, her eyelids fluttering closed.
"Nope, can't close your eyes. If you do that you'll die."
Her eyes snapped open again. Rey put an arm under the back of her knees and carried her bridal style underneath a low overhang on the cliff. She set her down gently, making her sit upright against the rock wall. Then she went back to the speeder and began examining the containers that were strapped to its side. The last one she opened had water in it. Not clean water, but water never the less. She unstrapped the container and rushed back to Allana.
"How are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts."
"I know. I'm going to look at your wound, okay?"
Allana nodded, so Rey reached down and rolled up her shirt to expose the makeshift bandage. Blood had already seeped through the thick layer of cloth, and the wound on her thigh was filled with sand but thankfully not bleeding.
"I'm going to take off the bandage and try to clean it out and change it."
"With what?"
"I found some water on the speeder and for the bandage…," Rey ripped one of the sleeves off her shirt, "I'll use this."
Rey slowly peeled the bandage off and grimaced when the wound was exposed.
"Wow," Allana said, peering down at her wound, "Mom's going to be pissed."
"I don't think that's what you should be worried about right now," Rey said, dabbing at the wound with a clean section of her old bandage dipped in water.
"I'm bleeding out Rey. Let me use humor to cope with the fact that I'm slowly dying."
"You're not dying," she said, using her torn off sleeve to plug the wound and securing it by wrapping the old bandage around her midsection.
"Rey. Rey, look at me. Tell me what you see."
Rey looked up and scanned her body. Allana's hair was matted with sweat, her entire body was flushed red, her eyes were glassy and unfocused, and she was already bleeding though her new bandage.
"I see someone who's going to survive this."
"Rey," she said softly, "I don't think I am. I've lost a ton of blood, the wound on my leg is probably infected, and I'm pretty sure I'm dehydrated and in shock. It's okay. I'll get to see my dad again."
"No," Rey said, her voice becoming thick with tears, "I'm not letting you die on me, you hear? I'm not letting my cousin die, especially since I just found you."
Allana reached up a shaky hand and wiped away the few tears that had escaped.
"Tell my mom that I love her. Very, very, very much. And that I'm so sorry."
With that, her eyes closed and she went limp. Rey's hands immediately went to her neck, and almost collapsed with relief when she felt a heartbeat.
"I'm not giving up on you Allana. Not until they arrive with help."
…
Luke Skywalker's hands were shaking as he boarded the speeder that was supposed to take him to his daughter and niece. The last few hours had been a blur. When Leia called with the news, he almost fell to the floor. He and Chewbacca had met Jack at a neutral point along with a medic that he had been introduced to but couldn't remember their name. Then they had headed to Tatooine.
Though the conflict between the First Order and Resistance had subsided, they had decided to land on the other side of the planet to avoid detection. A friend of Jacks had met them there with a speeder, and he was driving them towards the farm.
"Master Skywalker," Jack asked, sitting down next to him.
"Yes, Jack."
"I've just heard that Kylo Ren is searching the city. Any idea what he's looking for?"
"The same thing we're looking for," he said as the speeder jerked to life, "that's why we need to get there first."
"He's looking for Allana and Rey?"
"He probably heard about the Falcon being here and thought it could lead him to them. When the Falcon took off and he could sense that they weren't on it, he probably assumed that they were still on planet. Allana being hurt makes it that much easier for him to find them."
"Can you sense where they are?"
"Sort of. I can sense Rey's distress and fear. I can feel Allana's life force draining out of her. I can discern the general area, but I can't tell you their exact location."
"We'll find them. All we have to go is just go past the farm along the cliffs. That's all I could understand from the message Rey sent. As soon as we get to the farm, I'll comm Chewbacca and he'll fly the Falcon over."
"I hope you're right."
…
Rey was exhausted. Hours had passed since Allana had passed out, and miraculously, she still had a heartbeat. Rey's arms were numb from applying pressure to Allana's wounds, her legs were asleep, and her head felt like it had been stuffed full of Bantha fur. Every cell in her body was screaming for water, but she had used all the water in an attempt to clean their wounds and keep Allana cool. She was staring out over the desert when a cloud of dust caught her eyes. A speeder. Finally. Rey jumped up and ran out from under the overhang. The faint sounds of the speeder's engine reached her ears. She waved her arms, and screamed at the approaching speeder, trying to get their attention, not even caring if they were friendly. Just as it reached her, the Falcon touched down right across from her. Jack climbed out of the speeder, followed closely by Luke. Jack merely nodded at her before kneeling at Allana's side, but Luke wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.
"I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner," he murmured softly.
"It's okay. I'm fine we need to help Allana," Rey said, allowing herself to go limp in his arms.
The medic came rushing out of the Falcon followed closely by Chewbacca.
"What happened," the medic called out to her.
"She was shot in the stomach. Once the speeder died I tried to clean the wound and change the dressing. She collapsed shortly after, but she's had a pulse the whole time."
"Okay, get her on the ship."
Chewbacca picked her up and rushed her onto the ship.
"Come on Rey, let's go," Luke said, pulling away and placing a hand on her shoulder.
Rey took a step and promptly collapsed. The medic rushed to her side and examined her quickly.
"She dehydrated and probably over stimulated. She'll be fine once we get her some fluids and on the ship."
Luke picked her up and carried her on the ship. Allana was already laid out on the med bunk. Jack helped them get IVs in both of the girls before saying a quick goodbye, making them promise to send him updates, and jumping back on the speeder to head home. Chewbacca took off, while the medic and Luke worked on the girls.
…
Poe opened the door to Leia's cabin with a loud creak. Leia was standing at the large window that took up one of the walls, and she didn't even glance at the door when Poe came in.
"I was wondering how long it was going to take you Commander Dameron," she said softly.
"General Organa, if I could just go to check…"
"My answer has not changed Dameron."
"General, I'm going insane just sitting here," Poe said, his voice rising in volume while he shut the door behind him.
Leia whirled around, her face flushed with anger and her eyes ablaze.
"You think this is easy for me," she said, her voice low and dangerous, "you think it's easy for me to just sit here while my only daughter is slowly bleeding out? Do you think it's easy for me to be facing the possibility of losing my niece that I already lost once?"
"General…" Poe said slowly.
"You think you're going insane just sitting here, but what you're feeling is nothing compared to what I'm going through. When she left, she was still angry at me. If she dies, she's going to die angry and confused because mothers are supposed to be there for their children, and I never was. She's going to die not knowing how sorry I am and how much I love her," Leia said, her voice cracking and tears rolling down her face.
Poe opened his mouth, but she waved her hand to stop him.
"I'm not going to demote you for what you said in the cockpit because I understand. I would have done the same thing. I have done the same thing. I abandoned the Resistance to rescue Han from carbonite. I understand."
"Then why won't you let me go?"
"There's a fight happening there now. If you showed up in your ship, you might be shot out of the sky before you even make it to the surface. Besides that, all those girls need right now is a ship to take them off planet and medic to make sure they don't get worse. We already had a ship, and you're not a medic. All you would do is get in the way."
Before Poe could say anything, someone knocked softly on the door.
"Come in," Leia called out as she wiped away her tears.
The door slowly opened, and Finn stuck his head in the room.
"We'll be arriving at the new base shortly, so they need you to come give everyone further instructions. We've also received a message from Master Skywalker."
"And," she said, standing up a little straighter.
"They have the girls, and they are on their way. Rey has minor injuries and is awake and talking. Allana has more severe injuries and is still unconscious, but the medic thinks that she will make a full recovery.
Leia and Poe both sighed in relief.
"Thank you Finn," Leia said, her voice soft, "we'll be out momentarily."
The door shut with a click, and Leia turned to Poe with a smile on her face. She began to walk out of the room but stopped when she reached his side. Leia reached out and gently squeezed his arm.
"She's going to be okay. They both are."
Leia didn't wait for his response and left the room, leaving him standing there, staring at the door.
AN: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please review!
