Chapter 4: The Breath

Two days had past and they became the happiest of her life. Everyone one was so nice; expect Sinedd. But Rocket told Tia not to worry about it since Sinedd hated everyone. Rocket hardly left her side, unless Sonny or Dame Simbai threaten to make him do dish duty for the rest of the war. No one had tried to push Tia into talking about her experience; that is, until the third day. She had just woken up to find Sonny Blackbones and Rocket, sitting beside her bed.

"Morning Sonny, morning Rocket." She yawned, as she stretched her left arm (since her right arm still killed). Despite only knowing each other for a few days, Tia saw Sonny as a second father to her and even though Sonny had only known her for a limited amount of time as well, he had come to see her as his own daughter.

"Hey kiddo." Sonny smiled, handing her a pile of clothes. "I know you're still not in your best condition but there's a spacecraft coming to take us to Akillian tomorrow and we thought you might want to arrive there in clothes, not a t-shirt and shorts." They all laughed at the idea of Tia arriving at Akillian wearing an over-sized t-shirt and shorts. Many of Rockets visits had included talks about Akillian, Tia couldn't help but go into little day-dreams about living a normal life on the beautiful landscape of Akillian or at least try and live a normal life. She had no idea how she was going to start a new life on Akillian but she was determined to put the past behind her. She managed to shake herself out of her dream to see Sonny and Rocket with worry glints in their eyes.

"Is something wrong Sonny?" Tia asked, since she had never seen Sonny worried. Tia knew he was one of the top leaders of the Alliance; he wasn't meant to get worried.

"Tia, have you planned to go to the police about your husband." He questioned. Tia had not been expecting this and nearly dropped the clothes that she was holding up to inspected. She honestly didn't know what she was going to do about her husband, she had thought about filing for divorce papers, as soon as she got to Akillian but she didn't want to risk the thought of Jonathan tracking her down. She didn't even know if he was still alive. She couldn't even look at them when she gave them her answer.

"I don't even know if I killed him or not." It was barely a whisper but Sonny and Rocket heard it loud and clear.

"What do you mean you don't know if you killed him?" They both asked at the same time. Tia had told no one about how she had escaped from her husband, Dame Simbai had once tried to ask her questions about her experience with Jonathan and what happen when she decided to make a run for it but Tia instantly changed the subject. She still couldn't get her mind around the blue energy that had surrounded her body when she hit Jonathan around the head. She had tried to convince herself that she had just imagined it from the blood lost or something. Tia took a deep breath before she started explaining the night's events; including the blue energy.

"You mean you used the Breath?" Sonny cried out in surprise, after Tia had finished explaining everything.

"The what?" Tia uttered out. What the hell was the breath? She wondered to herself, it sounded familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"The Breath is the name of the Akillian flux." Rocket answered. Tia shook her head in disbelief. It couldn't be possible, you actually had to live on the planet to be able to have the flux; let alone use it. Besides, Bleylock destroyed all of the galaxies flux twenty years ago when he used some kind of weapon to wipe them all out.

"But that's impossible. I've never been to Akillian my whole life, there's no way I could have gained the Breath." Tia argued, she grabbed her head and pulled herself into a little ball. It was a habit that Tia had gotten into when she had been with Jonathan, if she felt in danger or panicked in any way she would pull herself in a ball to protected herself. Right now, she was panicking. She could feel she was on the edge of tears when strong arms wrapped around her.

"It's all right Tia; you won't get in trouble I promise." Rocket whispered, as he pulled her small, delicate body closer to him. The normal Rocket wouldn't have done a thing like this (especially in front of Sonny Blackbones) but there was something about Tia that made him feel different. He thought she was just so brave and strong and he just wanted to protect her from everything evil in the world, especially that filthy husband of hers. Tia uncurled a bit from her ball, so she could wrap her arms around Rocket and cried into his shoulder. Sonny just sat in his seat and watched silently, as Rocket tried his best to comfort Tia. He would have tried to comfort her if he could but the truth was he wasn't very good at this sought thing. The little scene was interrupted when D'jok, Corso and Dame Simbai came bursting through the door.

"They're here." All three of them stated.

"How the hell did they find us?" Sonny howled out in fury, when he snapped himself out of shock from the information that himself, Rocket and Tia had just been told. Tia whole body started to shake in fear and Rocket instantly hugged her tighter but was still being careful that he didn't hurt any of her broken ribs. Corso could only shake his head.

"We don't know but what I can tell you is that they're searching every house and fast." Corso answered. There was a moment of silence before Sonny suddenly snapped into full commander mode and started making orders.

"Ok we'll split into two groups. Rocket, Dame Simbai and D'jok you're with me, Corso, you'll take everyone else. You'll make some diversion to confuse them and then make a run for it. Everyone that's with me we'll be taking the forest, so they can't see Tia." Tia stopped moving for a second when she heard that last part.

"I know I'm not an expert on this but why doesn't everyone just escape through the woods, why is it just me and you guys" She asked, everyone froze in the middle of the room. Even though Tia trusted these people with her life she couldn't help but feel suspicious.

"I promise Tia, I'll explain everything later but right now we need to get out of here." Sonny spoke, Tia wasn't sure but she thought she heard a little plead somewhere hidden in his voice. Slowly she nodded her head. Sonny turned to everyone and gave orders and left to get himself ready. Dame Simbai was the only one to stay behind after everyone left and helped Tia to get changed into her stuff. When she was ready, Sonny came back in with a backpack strapped to his back. "You ready Tia." He asked. She nodded and followed him down stairs where everyone was waiting. Rocket gave her a small smile. After that she felt a little better. Sonny gave one last speech to everyone and thanked the person that let them hide in their house before leaving.

"Sonny stop!" Dame Simbai shouted from the back. All of the men stopped to turn to face her. "Look at her this running is killing her." She pointed to Tia who was just a few steps in front of her; breathing deeply. They had been running at full speed non-stop ever since they left the house. Tia had been feeling pain ever since she left the house but see refused to show she was weak, not now when everyone depended on her to be strong right now. However, she couldn't control herself when she began throwing up blood. She rested her head against the cool tree bark that she had been vomiting next too. Sweat poured from Tia's face. Rocket walked over to Tia and strapped the rucksack he had been carrying to the front of his chest.

"Come on Tia." He whispered softly, holding out his hand. Tia stared at it for a moment before taking it and letting Rocket swing her onto her back. Rocket was surprised to feel how light she was, he probably wouldn't know if she was there at all if she didn't have her arms wrapped around his shoulders. He knew she was severely underweight from the worries he had over heard from Dame Simbai and Sonny but this was ridiculous. Tia instantly slumped against Rocket, exhaustion finally over coming her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered into Rockets ear before passing out. Rocket gripped onto Tia's hand before he began running again.

"Tia, Tia, wake up." Rocket's soft echoed through Tia dreams, her eyes fluttered half way open, before closing them again and turned over; muttering some odd curse and went back to sleep again. Rocket covered his mouth to stop laughing out loud. Rocket had carried her for eight hours straight before Sonny told them to stop and have a quick break. He tried nudging her again, this time making her bolt upright. She was about to say something but stopped when she saw Rocket kneeling next to her. The fear on her face was replaced by a happy one. "Linner is ready." Rocket smiled.

"Linner?" Tia questioned, looking a little confused.

"Yeah, its lunch and dinner put together, since we've missed both of them." He joked. Tia giggled at his joke and then let Rocket help her up. She almost freaked herself out a minute ago when Rocket tried to wake her up. She thought Rocket had been Jonathan and was about to cry out for a plead for forgiveness when she saw him. Shaking the silly thoughts from her head she sat herself down between Rocket and D'jok.

"Thanks." She muttered, as she took what looked like soup from Sonny. She nearly spat it back out when she tasted it but forced herself to swallow it. I need my strength; Tia tried to tell herself, as she forced more of the stuff down.

"Sorry but no one on this team can cook." D'jok joked quietly in my ear, so his father couldn't hear us (since it's his cooking everyone was trying to 'eat' at the moment) hearing this Tia started having an un-controllable fit as she tried to suppress her laughter; which she was failing at miserably.

"What's so funny?" Sonny eyed us suspiciously front across the fire. Because of Tia's fit D'jok himself started laughing, making everyone stare at them like they were nuts.

"Nothing Sonny." Tia breathes, finally gaining control of herself as she began wiping away the tears that had formed in her eyes. "We were just..." She stopped when she got the wind knocked out of her when a huge impact forced her forward onto the ground. She didn't know what it was except that it was some kind of animal because she could hear its growls behind her. The next moment it let out a whine and fell off Tia's back.

"Molehounds." Sonny hissed, as Rocket helped Tia back on to her feet. The air was suddenly filled with howls from the darkness of the trees. "Rocket! Take Tia and run." Sonny yelled at them as he, D'jok and Dame Simbai, took guns hidden under their t-shirts and started shooting. Before Tia could protest Rocket grabbed her hand and ran.