Baen's body slumped to the ground but Skyla was already moving, her feet taking on a mind of their own as they began to take her back in the direction they'd come, back towards the facility.
"Skyla!" called Ratchet but she ignored him, her head once again filled with one directive get back to the facility, get back to Maia.
She leapt over broken vegetation, following the trail of devastation Ratchet had made.
"Skyla, wait!" Ratchet yelled, speeding after her. He caught up to her in no time and put out a hand. She shook him off. He grabbed her arm and she jerked around, trying to yank herself free,
"Let me go!" she shouted.
"Skyla, please, just wait," Ratchet asked her soothingly, but she continued to try and pull away.
"Let me go!" she cried, her voice rising in hysteria.
"Skyla, what's the matter?" Ratchet's brow furrowed. Why was she getting so worked up?
"I have to go back...I have to get to Maia!" she screamed as she strained in his arms, limbs flailing desperately. Dread dropped in Ratchet's stomach like an iron boulder and he acted on it in an instant. Scooping Skyla into his arms he kicked his hoverboots into life and sped off through the jungle, heading for the facility. Skyla stopped struggling when she realised where they were going and looped her arms around his neck to ease the weight.
A minute or so later they arrived back at the facility, speeding through the open main door. They were greeted with the welcome sight of the Rangers in full control of the facility, with the remaining guards being rounded up. But before Ratchet could take in any more Skyla had already scrambled out of his arms before he'd even stopped.
"Sarge! We've..." called one robot.
"Not now!" Ratchet retorted. He paused momentarily to remove a limp Clank from his back and handed him to a nearby robot.
"Fix him," was all he said before he went after the grey Lombax.
Skyla's feet barely touched the ground as she practically flew to the hydroponics chamber, her heart beating like that of a caged bird. She arrived and immediately headed for where she knew Maia lay, batting aside plants, crushing them once again in her haste.
She rounded the bush and came to an abrupt halt.
Maia lay on the ground where Skyla had left her, and there were two Kerwanian medics beside her. Skyla looked down at the Cazar and saw, to her immense relief, that Maia was still conscious. But then she saw her eyes and her heart fluttered with fear. The grey Lombax took several hesitant steps to her friend and fell to her side.
"Maia?" she whispered, picking up her friend's hand and cradling it to her.
"Little one," the Cazar whispered, a gentle yet slightly strained smile on her lips. Skyla looked into her eyes and noted their expression with alarm. They were full to the brim with pain and...hopelessness. Skyla looked up at the Kerwanians,
"Why aren't you healing her?" she demanded, her voice cracking. The medics exchanged glances,
"We can't," one of them said gently.
"There's some sort of poison coating the blade and it's slowing her heart down with every beat...and we can't stop it. We've tried adrenalin, histamine, nano-tech, everything...nothing works. Taking the blade out will only increase the rate of..." the other trailed off. Skyla frowned and her eyes flicked down to Maia,
"I...I don't understand," she murmured. Maia looked at her with soft eyes,
"They can't heal me, Sky." Her words ricocheted around Skyla's head, echoing with a distant promise of inevitability. Panic gripped Skyla's heart and she looked desperately at the medics,
"Su-surely there's s-something...anything y-you ca-can do..." she stuttered as her words tripped and stumble over each other. The medics simply shook their heads slowly.
"We're sorry," they murmured. Then they rose,
"We'll leave you in peace." They moved away as Ratchet arrived. A flurry of emotions shot across his face, but he quickly backed away, seeing that the two friends needed to be alone. He went with the medics and began a hushed conversation some way away.
Skyla gripped Maia's hand tighter, shuffling closer to her friend. Her blue eyes were narrowed in confusion as she looked into the hopeless gaze of Maia's eyes.
"Little one..." a delicate frown graced Maia's features as she noted Skyla's appearance, "what happened?" Skyla swallowed, feeling the iron taste of blood slip down her throat.
"Baen's dead," she muttered in reply. Maia's eyes widened,
"Sky..."
"I didn't kill him," the grey Lombax hastened to add, "Ratchet did." Understanding dawned in the dying light of Maia's eyes.
"Maia..." Skyla's voice cracked and faded, falling away into uncertainty. The Cazar smiled a sad, soft, smile.
"I'm sorry, little one," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. Skyla choked on her words as they stabbed into her mind like a thousand daggers, and all of a sudden it hit Skyla. Like a train down the tracks, it slammed into Skyla with all the force of a thousand tsunamis.
Maia was dying.
Maia, her best friend, her sister, her rock...was dying.
And there was nothing Skyla could do.
She made a strangled noise and moved closer, clutching Maia's hand to her.
"No. No. Maia, please. Please. No," she pleaded and spluttered. Maia's eyes softened to a look of compassion and regret, but she said nothing.
"Maia...please," Skyla begged, fear hammering into her chest like a rusty nail, "you can't...you can't...die." Maia still said nothing. Skyla gulped back tears that were threatening to spill over, but she knew it wouldn't be long before they gave way.
"Maia...please...don't...don't die," she whimpered pathetically.
"Everything is going to be alright," Maia told her calmly.
"No, no. No! It's n-not! I...I need you, Maia," Skyla answered, her voice rising in panic, "don't...don't die. I can't...I can't go on w-without you," her voice trailed off into a choked whisper.
"You can do this, Sky," Maia whispered.
"No, I can't!" Skyla cried, tears starting to leak out and trickle down her face.
"Yes, you can," Maia told her firmly, "you've got Ratchet and Clank. They'll help you, look after you."
"But...but...they're not you," Skyla choked again, "I need you." Maia simply looked at her, her face etched with beautiful grief.
"I'm so sorry, Skyla," she murmured, her voice aching with regret.
"I had plans, you know," Skyla told her, a desperate edge to her voice, "I never told you, but even before we'd escaped, I had plans. We were going to free everyone, and live on a planet far, far away from anyone else. We were going to have a farm and grow our own food and live there forever and ever. Just us. You, me and Jaymz," Skyla's eyes widened, "he's alive, Maia! Jaymz is alive!" she cried like a strangled crow.
"I know, little one," Maia murmured, her voice growing fainter, "and he will look after you too."
"Maia..." Skyla whimpered, her face smeared with blood and tears, "don't go. Don't...leave me."
"I'll still be with you, Skyla," Maia replied with a tender smile, "in here." She raised a hand, shaking with effort, and held it against Skyla's heart. The grey Lombax held it in place, her vision blurring as the tears continued to flow in an ever increasing stream, like a dam on the brink of collapse.
"I love you, little one," Maia whispered, her breathing slowing with each breath, "never forget that. I love you...so, so much. And I'm so sorry it has to be this way. But I love you...and I know you can go on. You are strong, little one, and I believe in you. You can do this, Skyla." Maia sucked in a breath of pain and her body spasmed slightly, but she brought it under control and kept on smiling. Skyla choked again and pressed Maia's hand to her lips, feeling their dying warmth in her palm,
"I love you too," she murmured quietly, then her eyes closed as several muffled sobs shook her body.
At that moment, the bush behind them rustled and a figure emerged. Ratchet came over and knelt beside Skyla without a word, his face grim and his eyes bleeding with sorrow. Maia smiled up at him gently,
"Take care of her, Ratchet," she told him. The sandy Lombax nodded,
"I will," he promised with a blunt solidity, pain all too evident in his eyes. Maia coughed lightly and blood appeared on her lips, staining them red. Her breathing was becoming dangerously light as she began to rasp with every breath, the air rattling in her lungs,
"Remember...little one..." she gasped softly and Skyla's grip on her hand tightened once again, inadvertently cutting off the blood supply. Maia's eyes met her own and Skyla could see the light flickering and fading within them like a candle in the wind, and yet still retaining the warmth and compassion Skyla had always known them to have. Maia went on, her last words spoken with great effort,
"You're...not...alone."
With that, the Cazar sighed and her chest ceased to move, her body lightening as her life left her like a butterfly to the breeze. Skyla looked down in numb shock at her friend. Eyes that had, moments ago, been so full of life...now lay empty in death.
"Maia..." Skyla mewed pitifully. But there was no answer. There would never be an answer. Because Maia was dead.
Skyla choked once, a strangled sound that seemed to be held captive in her throat, and then she collapsed as the barriers to her grief gave way. It all began to pour out. Tears streamed down her face as her body started to heave with great, racking sobs. They flowed steadily, dripping onto the still warm hand of her friend, and falling to the ground where they soaked in with the blood.
Strong arms wrapped around Skyla and she was pulled into an embrace. Even when her body shook so violently in fits of grief, they held on to her, rocking her gently as the tears continued to fall, drop by drop.
All of a sudden, Skyla threw back her head and gave a cry. It was a cry of pure anguish, an animalistic sound of unimaginable loss and inconceivable pain. It was a cry that pierced to the very heart of all who heard it. It was the cry of a wounded animal, howling their misery to the moon in the depths of the night. It was the cry of one whose heart had been wrenched in two and tossed aside, two bloody pieces of flesh slowly losing what gave them life.
The arms tightened around her as the sound continued, its intensity increasing until it eventually trailed off into a strangled wail. As it stopped, it seemed to flutter up and away through the green to the roof and the sky above, taking it with it all hope, all joy...all life.
The tears continued to fall from Skyla's eyes, as Ratchet held her to him and the life blood of Maia mingled with her tears as they faded away into the ground beneath them.
And in the chamber, Skyla cried.
When they came to take the body away, Skyla would not let go. She clung to the Cazar"s hand as if it were a lifeline, uttering noises of desperation as she began to fight them to keep ahold. Ratchet was forced to tug her away and could only hold her firmly as she struggled against him, straining to reach her friend as sobs continued to rack her body. Gradually, her movements slowed and she slumped in Ratchet's arms, burying her face into his chest as she whispered Maia's name over and over in whimpering cries. Her tears wet his front but Ratchet didn't care as he lowered his head next to hers, pressing his cheek to her head as he rocked her in a gentle, soothing rhythm. His own tears were leaking from his eyes as drop after drop fell down his face and onto her hair, and he closed his eyes. His own barriers threatened to break, to pour out in a torrent of emotion, but he held it back, because Skyla was weeping.
Instead he listened to her sobs as each one cut deep into him, like shards of glass digging into his heart, shredding it to pieces. He felt her loss through the sound of her sorrow, and the grief that emanated from her, wrapping him in a shroud of misery he felt he would never be free of.
So he simply held her, gently standing firm against the barrage of pain that tore at him, focusing only on the beautiful, broken creature in his arms.
"Sarge?" his eyes opened and flicked over to where a Ranger stood uncertainly. Ratchet gave him a look.
"We need you, sarge," the robot muttered nervously. Ratchet sighed inwardly. He began to pull away from Skyla but she clutched at him instinctively, her hands scrabbling on his armour. He placed a hand over hers, murmuring words of reassurance,
"I'll be back. Just a minute. I promise." He slowly lowered her to the ground where she sat in a crumpled heap, her head falling into her hands. Ratchet rose and he could hardly bear to leave her in such a state, but he forced himself to turn and follow the Ranger.
"What's the situation?" he muttered, knowing it must be serious if they came to him in such a moment.
"Captain Pykard went down. He'll be ok, but he's been taken in for medical treatment. Lieutenant Blak is on the trail of a group of guards who escaped into the forest and Sergeant Rojerz is with the evacuees," the robot explained, "we've rounded all the guards into the mess hall."
Ratchet followed him through the facility until they reached the right place. As he entered, he was immediately confronted with the sight of at least 100 guards sitting unarmed at the lunch tables, with Rangers posted around the room to keep a close eye on them all. They all looked up as Ratchet entered and the sandy Lombax addressed them all,
"Who's your leader?" A Snivelakian got to his feet and Ratchet recognised him as the same guard he'd fought when he first met Skyla.
"I am Drako, Head of Security," the reptile announced.
"You are all under arrest," Ratchet told them, "and will be sentenced according to your crimes. You," he pointed at Drako, "will co-operate fully."
"Where's Baen?" Drako asked.
"Baen is dead," Ratchet retorted coldly. There was a general stir in the guards as mumbling broke out. Drako studied Ratchet for a moment and saw the truth in his eyes, and he bowed his head in submission.
"Then you have our complete surrender and full co-operation. I only ask for medical assistance to my men who need it." Ratchet nodded once,
"Fine."
"Sir, the prison ships have just landed," a Kerwanian told the Lombax.
"Treat those who are wounded and then file them out in groups of 10. Any funny business, use any force necessary," Ratchet addressed the Rangers nearest to him. They all nodded in acknowledgement and went about following his orders. Ratchet left the hall and made for the hydroponics chamber, anxious to return to the one who needed him.
"Ratchet!" He turned to see Clank running towards him, looking a little battered but very much alive. Ratchet smiled, but there was no light to it,
"Clank. Good to see you're ok."
"Where is Maia?" the robot asked. Ratchet's heart fell and he opened his mouth to speak but his throat had closed up. His mouth was filled with sawdust and for a moment he simply gaped at his friend.
"Ratchet. Where is Maia?" Clank repeated with cautious agitation. The sandy Lombax finally found his voice, even though it cracked,
"I...I...I'm so sorry Clank," was all he managed. The robot's optic sensors widened in complete shock and he shook his head unconsciously.
"No," he muttered in disbelief, "no." There was nothing Ratchet could say as he simply looked at Clank, pain smeared across his features. As the news sank in, the robot opened his mouth several times, but no sound came out. Then, without a word he turned and ran towards the main entrance. Ratchet didn't even call after him.
He headed straight back to the hydroponics chamber and located Skyla immediately.
He found the grey Lombax where he'd left her, on the ground that was soaked in Maia's blood, curled into a foetal position. He sat down beside her and realised she wasn't moving at all, and made no sign she'd noticed his presence.
"Skyla?" Ratchet murmured, trying to elicit a response. With aching slowness Skyla's head rose and her eyes met his. She wasn't crying anymore but her cheeks were still damp with tears and blood. Around her eyes were puffy and red, and her nose was running, a steady stream of snot and blood. She looked a mess, but it was her eyes that he really noticed.
Where before they'd been so full of life, even anger and hate and sorrow lighting their depths...they now lay empty, completely and utterly devoid of any emotion. It was like looking into the eyes of a blank robot. They were as barren as a desert, and there was no light to be found in the blue, only varying shades of grey and black.
Ratchet heard a cracking sound and felt sure it was his heart breaking clean in two. For he had never seen eyes like Skyla's before, so empty, so lifeless, so...blank.
And it hurt him, deeper than anything had ever hurt him before. Every cut and bruise, every broken bone or gashed limb, every mental pain he'd endured when those around him had died...it was nothing to this. This was pain. And it hurt. It hurt him so bad he wondered if he just might be dying of sheer agony. Because as he looked into the void that used to be Skyla's eyes, he felt a piece of him die inside, fading away to a charred black mess. The void was empty, and desolate...and Ratchet was heartbroken for it.
Right there and then, Ratchet wanted nothing more than to take Skyla into his arms and hold her close. He wanted to tell her that it was ok, that everything was going to be alright. But he didn't. He couldn't. Because that would be lying. Because deep down he knew that it wasn't ok, not in the slightest. Deep down he knew...nothing would ever be the same again.