Thrawn opened his eyes. At least, he'd thought he did. The sky was bright, but he couldn't see anything but fuzz, gray and empty.

"Thrawn," he heard Linnia's voice, "You're awake."

He had a hand on his forehead that moved alongside his temple to his neck. A warm hand rested on his chest. He tried to keep his breathing even but it felt like his ribcage was shuddering, pain shooting through his core with the effort.

"That's still a terrible wound." He heard Ezra say.

Thrawn closed his eyes. It felt like it.

He heard some sort of spray, and then a cold cloth was being pressed onto his head.

Thrawn's stomach flipped and he forced himself to hold whatever was trying to escape down.

He gripped her wrist in the process, and she took his hand in her free one.

"Deep breaths."

Thrawn groaned, his lips parting, his chest muscles seizing from the effort. Something was seriously wrong.

"It's ok." She said quietly. She replaced the cloth with a bacta patch, pressing it gently.

"Linnia-" He wasn't sure if he'd actually said it or simply said it in his mind. He opened his eyes again, and he could see the outline of her face against the dim light behind her, but little more. Apparently he'd sat up, because he had hands on his shoulders.

"Its ok, lie back."

He relaxed, and her hands guided him back to where he's been lying. She stuffed something under his head, adjusting his position. His head was pounding, the pressure behind his eyes so intense that he felt as if they'd fall out of his head, the beating of his heart unbearable.

He reached up to counter the pressure, but couldn't find his own face, instead, swiping at the air. Was it his arms? Or did he have a back injury? He wheezed, panic flooding his senses, nothing was moving or working as it should, his body either resisting each attempted action or doing something else entirely.

"Linnia-" Cheunh spilled from his lips, and he swiped at the air.

"Thrawn, listen to me. You're ok, everything is ok, but you need to sit still. Trust me, trust what I'm telling you. Please."

Trust.

What a concept. The only time he'd trusted anyone was when they were under commands to obey their senior officer. He'd rarely, if ever, left something simply to trust. But if he was going to, it was Eli or Linnia.

"My eye," He grit his teeth, and she took his hand.

"Your eye is ok, you've got a concussion, just breathe, focus on breathing. I have the rest under control."

She put the cool cloth over his eyes, helping relieve just enough of the pressure to let him return to his merciful sleep. He tried, but couldn't recall where he was or how he'd gotten there. He simply had a strange sense of dread and horror, like something had gone horrible wrong, but he couldn't concentrate on what.

Thrawn was in and out of consciousness, strange dreams coming to him and casting doubt on his reality. One moment he was back home, the next he was on the Chimaera, and another he was simply floating through space, screaming with nothing coming out.

When he opened his eyes next Linnia was knelt beside him. His pants were sliced open, his leg blackened and bloody. Bile rose in his throat. What did the rest of him look like? He watched her, ad she began to wipe his thigh with a cloth.

"Linnia." He tried, his throat hoarse.

"Here," she offered, and helped him drink water from a canteen.

"How long have I been out?" He breathed, his head still beating with the rhythm of his heart.

"Three or four days," She said quietly.

He stared at her. He could hear Bridger fiddle with something behind him.

"What is it you're doing?" He asked, sensing Bridger's tense stance.

"I have to pull shrapnel from your wound," she said quietly.

Thrawn's eyes widened briefly.

"What?"

"It was too swollen prior, I didn't know it was in there. Now that the swelling has subsided enough, I can retrieve the glass."

Thrawn shifted, closing his eyes. His vision was blurred and dredged up nausea.

"Where?" He knew perfectly well where, but his mind screamed at him to stall.

"In your leg," She said, gently prodding his thigh so he'd know without having to sit up and look, but he'd already seen.

He swallowed, and stiffened. "Alright."

Ezra moved closer, hesitantly. "I'm sorry, Thrawn, but I'm gonna have to help keep you still. Doctor's orders."

"Don't apologize, Bridger, on the contrary, don't hold back, I want it over with as quickly as possible, and would loathe to cause any more damage."

Ezra nodded to Linnia and she stuffed something under Thrawn's thigh.

"Try to breathe," She said, and a burn took his breath away. He was immobilized by Ezra's force powers, but it didn't stop his body from trying to get away, his muscles tensing and recoiling away from the pain. The burning grew, his vision blurring and his surroundings fading away to nothing but fuzzy images. It felt as if someone were inserting the glass into his leg, slowly and methodically, twisting as they went.

The pain subsided all at once, the cool rush of bacta bringing him crashing down to the ground. He was sucking in each breath, his head spinning.

"Slow breaths," She said quietly, stitching the wound up with a speed that didn't allow Thrawn to process it. "Slow."

He tried, knowing hyperventilating would achieve nothing, and watched her bandage the wound. He looked to the pod's med kit beside her. It had only a few packets of bacta left.

"Thank you, Ezra," Linnia said, and Ezra bobbed his head. "Of course. "I'll go look for some more berries."

Thrawn took a moment to look at Linnia. She was dripping, her hair fallen from its braid over her shoulders. Thrawn watched the water pool at the ends of her lashes before falling onto the ground. She built up the small fire, pouring some water in the pot she'd fashioned from a part on the pod, tossing in the plant.

"I have to apologize," Thrawn said quietly.

She looked over, "for?"

"For not assisting you."

She shook her head, "Thrawn, you're badly wounded. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm worried about you."

He watched her cover another wound near his knee with a sliver of cloth from her shirt.

"Will I walk again?"

It came out nearly as a whisper, as if a gentle question yielded gentle answers.

"I think so, if we can keep infection at bay" she said cautiously. "But it'll never be the same."

He watched her face. She was far cooler than she typically was, his infrared not quite picking up on heat in the fingers the she grazed his thigh with. He shivered.

"You're cold."

She looked up, water dripping off her jacket onto his bare skin. "Its a damp, cool planet. It hasn't stopped raining at all."

"My blanket-"

"No." She said firmly. "You need it far, far more than I. I know you want to help but do your part by getting well, hmm?"

He could sense the fear in her voice, tears at the back of her eyes.

"Did you find anything that could nod toward civilization?" He asked.

"No. Not yet."

"And no food."

"Not really. Just these terrible berries Ezra found by the river."

Ezra rejoined them, soaked from the pouring rain. "Almost out of these beauties." He said, emptying his pockets onto their makeshift plate.

"It'll be ok. You just have to be patient," Linnia said halfheartedly.

"Linnia, we don't even know where we are!"

"Ezra, nothing bad is happen to us. We'll figure this out, and when Thrawn's better I know he'll be able to help us figure out a plan. For now, we just have to keep tabs on resources."

"Ezra." Thrawn said firmly, and the boy looked at him. "I will get us out of here. You have my word."

He nodded curtly, and went back out into the rain. Linnia was staring at the fire, her eyes revealing the battle within her.

"You really believe that?"

"Yes." He said quietly. "I do."

She gave him her blanket as well that night, and followed Ezra out into the rain. Thrawn took the moment to examine himself. There wasn't a single patch of him to be found that wasn't scratched, bruised, or bandaged. How had he lived? He'd gotten remarkably lucky, and he'd have to again to walk, to do just about anything. He touched his mouth. His canine was chipped, and a piece of his tongue was gone. He'd bitten it off in the fall, he assumed. He stared into the rain. How had he been spared? He'd struggled with the idea of a higher power, but to be in an escape pod untethered, fall to a planet, and somehow survive was extraordinary. He'd been worried about killing Linnia and Ezra with his own body once he'd pressed eject, but his subconscious hadn't thought of that at the time, wanting only to go wherever she was to go, no matter the consequences. But now he was to have some sort of lasting health complication, no doubt. What would that spell for his future?

It wasn't long before the young Jedi returned, clearly jarred by the sight of Thrawn alone. He sat down by the fire and picked awkwardly at a stick. Thrawn simply watched the rain, applying counterpressure to his pounding temples.

"You must really hate me."

Thrawn blinked. "Why would I hate you?"

"Um, I destroyed your ship? We're out here because of the purgil I summoned?"

"On the contrary, I have a great deal of respect for you."

Ezra's mouth fell open.

"What?"

"You outmatched me. That's not something that happens very often, and you've outmatched me a few times over. No, bridger, there was nothing personal to what you did. You were defending your home, and defeated me. There are no hard feelings."

Ezra looked at the ground. "I hated you." Thrawn wasn't entirely stunned, but he wasn't comfortable being told such a thing when he couldn't defend himself. "But, something tells me you're not who I think you are. What you did for me, for Linnia. I don't know, my instincts tell me you're not what I assumed."

"I would argue that is correct. If you're interested, I can tell you a bit about what happened from my perspective."

Thrawn explained to Ezra how he got to the empire, and why he was continuing to work with them. He told him about the death star, about the chiss, about his recent tangle with the emperor and why giving Ezra to him was his last ditch effort to stay alive, and about his love for his people, as Ezra loved his.

"So you left your entire species, your entire society, for a decade, to protect them?" Ezra marveled.

"Yes, and it seems I had good reason to do so, but I was unable to get my hands on the death star plans."

"If I'd known-"

"No Bridger. It's far harder than you and the rebels could've imagined. Even I, from within, working on the protection of the death star, was unable to get a schematic." He stared at him. "I gave you to the emperor in hopes you'd do exactly what you did."

Ezra cocked his head. "Launched us into unknown space?"

"I wasn't sure what it was I wanted you to do, but I knew it would be unexpected, and irreversible. The emperor was going to kill me, or more likely, force me to betray my people to stay in his favor. I don't know what I would've done, what the bigger betrayal would've been, leaving the plans or leading him to the chiss, but I'm relieved you took that decision from me, but I do fear for the galaxy."

"The rebels, they'll figure it out. They always do, Thrawn."

He stared. "Do you have any idea what we're gonna do?"

Thrawn nodded. "Don't worry, Bridger. Leave that to me. You simply help Linnia with the food and protection. She's a doctor, not a fighter."

Linnia returned with a leaf she swore up and down was edible, and softened it in the fire over a piece of metal from the ship. Thrawn was sitting upright against the back wall, and his head was pounding, the pressure behind his eyes building again.

"How you feeling?" She asked from the other side of the fire. He swallowed. "I'm fine."

She crawled over to him and his heart rate rose, her proximity intoxicating, even now.

"Does your head hurt?" She asked quietly.

"Yes."

She touched his temple softly and ran her fingers to the back of his head. "Your eyes?"

"Yes."

She quirked her mouth in thought. "Do you want to lie down?"

He shook his head. "The ground hurts more than sitting against the wall."

She thought a moment, and moved toward Ezra. She folded her legs and motioned for him to lie down. He obliged and she helped him, his head and broken ribs screaming, and lowered his head into her lap. She put a cloth into a tin of cool water and draped it over his eyes.

"Deep breaths."

He closed his eyes, and his stomach turned.

"Linnia."

He tried to sit up, but his cracked ribs forced him to his side, landing painfully on his shoulder. He couldn't hold it back any longer, not coupled with the pain of his ribcage and the pressure behind his eyes, and crawled for the entrance, retching horribly. Mortified, he tried to hold it back and again, but emptied the very meager contents of his stomach onto the ground. The rain was still coming down, and the cold droplets pummeled the back of his neck. Linnia dropped to her knees beside him, draping something over the back of his head as he vomited, shielding him from the rain.

"I apologize." He murmured, hoarse.

"Don't apologize. I'll get you some water come lie back out of the rain."

She helped him from the entrance and back to where he was, helping him to drink water before lying back down in her lap. She stroked the side of his head, refreshing the cloth with cool water as needed, until he drifted to sleep.