She was essentially blind now, her eyes stinging with dust, her nose and mouth clogged. She couldn't breathe, partly because of her enclosed surroundings at the bottom of the ruined Sector 7 slums, and partly because of the sharp pain coursing through her chest like bolts of electricity. Her legs felt numb, as if they were no longer a part of her body. She couldn't move her feet.
"W-wedge… Big…" She coughed, and as she did the pain in her chest reached a pinnacle and she cried out. "Biggs…"
She couldn't die like this. Not alone. Tears ran down her cheeks, hot and oddly comforting.
"Jess…ie… Jessie… I'm h…here…"
Wedge! He was here.
"Jessie…!"
Biggs, too! She knew she was going to die, but now she felt a small comfort that she would not have to die alone. She held out a hand that felt as heavy as iron and felt elation and bliss as another hand took hers and held on to it. She outstretched her other hand too, hoping that Biggs still had the strength to hold on. Astonishingly, another hand latched on to hers and squeezed it tightly.
"We did… this… for the good of… the… planet," she murmured between ragged breaths.
"For the… planet," chimed Biggs.
"For our… friends," finished Wedge.
As she drifted off into an eternal slumber, the words of her friends and the warmth of their presences comforted her. She went to sleep with her face upturned into a smile.
The End