Homecoming

Terra was only half listening while Skyle talked, her focus being more on getting out of here than hearing about what might have happened if she had encountered the Blood Hounds instead of Cadivus's mercs. When Soren hissed at Skyle to be quiet, she immediately knew why, and through the Force she could sense their approach, though she didn't need that to hear who and what was coming after them. Her heart rate immediately began to climb, and she could feel Soren's hand tighten a little around her own for a moment.

The blaster pistol was thrust into her left hand and she looked at it for a moment. Fifty shots, but save one for herself. It didn't take a genius to know what that meant...

Terra didn't even have time to think about taking a shot when the hallway erupted in flames, and she felt Soren's hand jerk away from hers as hers as she was thrown to the ground, her blaster also flying out of her hand. Gasping for breath with her ears ringing from the blast, she could barely hear rapid footsteps getting closer and closer. Three of them, their presences being felt through the Force, and they were closing rapidly. Soren and Skyle were nearby, of course, but she couldn't tell if either one was conscious after the explosion.

She had barely recovered her senses before they were on her, and her training and instincts took over as they tried to grab her. Lashing out with the Force, she sent them stumbling backwards, which was a long enough break for her to get to her feet, though she couldn't find the blaster that Skyle had left for her. With her vision still impaired from the explosion and the room was full of smoke and dust, which meant she would have to rely on the Force to feel her way through this. Fortunately, her time in the bacta tank had allowed her to recover much of her Force "reserves" and she was strong enough now to do some damage.

The three gang members had recovered their footing and were charging again. Terra lashed out again with a much stronger Force Push, sending them toppling backwards. Still barely able to see through the dust and the smoke, she tried to feel around the floor for her blaster.

"Soren? Sk-Skyle?"She still wasn't sure if either of them were conscious, but she wouldn't be able to hold them off for long. Despite the rest in the bacta tank, she was still weak and even the two Force Pushes had drained her energy more than she had anticipated. Against the Blood Hounds, she wouldn't last long, especially if she couldn't find her blaster. Her search became more frantic as she felt them beginning to close in once more...

Terra stood back from the panel while Soren attempted to wire it to get the turbolift door to shut so they could get moving. He did so just in the nick of time, though it caught some unfortunate ganger's arm in the doors as the lift began to ascend. With a frightened squeak, she shielded her face with her arm and turned away quickly, the blood spraying on the jacket she wore and over her bare legs. Avoiding looking at the severed limb now on the floor, her eyes instead looked to Soren and Skyle, neither of whom seemed badly injured, though the old man looked rather worn out. She herself wasn't hurt either, aside from feeling weakened from her extended stay in the bacta tank and exertions with the Force.

Soren and Skyle had noticed something off about the gangers behavior, and while Terra wasn't familiar at all with gangs, she too had sensed something unusual about them. The way they had attacked was almost suicidal. Despite the fact that Soren and Skyle had easily halted their advances, and yet they just kept coming after them with no regards for their safety. She shuddered when it occurred to her just who might have been pushing them like that...

Her breathing started to speed up again when the lights flickered and the turbolift stopped between floors, trapping them inside. Soren and Skyle immediately sprang into action, but Terra stayed still, unsure of what she could do to help, at least until Soren asked her about the gang's odd behavior, and to see if there was anyone outside.

Terra closed her eyes and focused, feeling outside the turbolift for anyone close by, and she did sense a few presences close by, though they didn't seem like they were an immediate threat. As she was doing this, she had thought back to the fight in the hallway in front of the door, about the gang's suicidal charge against them. There was only one thing she could think of that would drive such people to do something like that, and another shudder ran through her at the thought.

Terra took a deep breath, still feeling through the Force for any sign of the Blood Hounds."I...it almost seemed like they w-were scared. Like something awful would happen if...if they f-failed their mission...it was...ah!"She gasped suddenly when she felt murderous intent, laced with a little of that fear that she had detected during the fighting on the lower floors. The Blood Hounds were still on their trail, and it was only a matter of time before they caught up."I f-feel them...th-they're c-coming this way!"

Terra screamed as she plummeted from the now shattered walkway, slipping from Soren's grasp. Her eyes closed as she expected to fall to her death, but a fresh wave of pain hit her as she crashed through the glass and hit the floor. She rolled a few times and finally came to a stop, gasping and crying as she felt the shards of glass cut into her flesh. Even when the voice sounded through the comm, she was too winded to respond, only able to lay on the ground, gasping as she tried to get enough breath back to reply.

She gasped for air as the breath slowly returned to her lungs, and took stock of her surroundings. It looked like she had fallen into some kind of office, sparsely furnished and darkened. She very carefully crawled away from where she had landed, gasping in pain every time her hands and knees encountered a sharp piece of broken class. Besides the cuts now on her hands and knees, she felt several cuts on her torso, the glass having cut right through Soren's jacket. There were some more cuts on her face, but fortunately, none of the glass had caught her in the eye, or on her bare feet. Even more fortunately, the seal on her left shoulder was still holding strong, as she had actually landed on her back and her right shoulder had borne the brunt of her impact through the window. It didn't seem like anything was broken, though now her right shoulder was throbbing from the impact and the pains she was feeling in her back signaled some major bruising, in addition to the cuts from the glass.

Terra cautiously climbed to her feet and reached into the pocket that she had heard the comm. The voice on the other end had sounded like Soren. "I-I'm OK...I c-c-can w-walk..."

The gunship was still hovering around outside, and a spotlight was shining from the front of the craft, trained on the remains of the bridge. To her horror, the light was slowly turning towards the office. Terrified, she stumbled towards the door leading to the hallway outside, just as the spotlight came to rest on the hole in the glass. It didn't look like they had seen her, but she could sense the presence of more Blood Hounds coming up this way. They were still a ways down from where she was, and since the walkway had been destroyed, they wouldn't be able to get there from the other building. That meant there was time to still reach the top and find Soren and Skyle.

She brought the comm up. "I...I'm c-coming up...I'll f-f-find a w-way..."

Terra ducked down to avoid the searching spotlight from the gunship, even though they very likely knew she was in here, having seen the hole in the window from where the young woman had plummeted through. Through the Force, she could sense the approaching Blood Hounds on the lower floors, their presences still feeling far away. They had a ways to go before they caught up to her, and she intended to make use of every second.

The hallways were pitch black, and her only source of light came from the comm she held in her hand, and that was barely enough to see the floor in front of her. But it was enough for her to press on without stumbling around in no direction at all, though she was moving very gingerly from the pain in her back and her shoulder. At least here, the gunship outside couldn't see her, so at least she would be safe from it for the moment.

She was able to find her way to a turbolift, still functional by the looks of it, but she couldn't help but think back. The last turbolift had been stopped in between floors, and without Soren and Skyle, she would likely be trapped inside if this one also was stopped. But in her current condition, she wouldn't be able to make much headway up a flight of stairs. There were only a few floors between where she was now and where she had fallen from, but even still...

Terra's decision was made for her as the lights coming from the turbolift went dark, forcing her to turn around and look for another way. It looked like the stairs would be her only option. She turned around and spent a minute or two stumbling around the hallways, frantically searching for the stairs. She found them, but she could also feel the gangers gaining on her. They were thirty stories down from her, but rapidly ascending, and once she entered the stairwell, she could hear them quite clearly."Th-the l-lift is out...I...I h-have t-to take the stairs!"She hoped if Soren or anyone was listening on the other end that they had heard her.

She moved as fast as she could, up to the 51st floor, then the 52nd, gritting her teeth against the pain from the bruises and cuts as she went. The Blood Hounds were gaining rapidly on her, and she could hear some kind of growling noises as she went.

Terra had reached the 58th floor, and looking up, she could see the door that would lead to the roof. More growling noisesl sounded behind her, and she turned to see two dogs, coming up the stairs behind her, having been sent ahead by the Blood Hounds. The young woman barely had time to react before they were upon her. With the Force, she was able to push one away, sending it tumbling down the stairs with a whimper, but the push missed the second one. It clamped down with powerful jaws on her right arm, its teeth easily piercing the sleeves of Soren's jacket. She tried hitting the dog, but she was unable to put any meaningful strength into the blows with her left arm, and she felt herself being pulled to the ground. Worse, the other animal was recovering from its tumble down the stairs.

Unable to put any strength into her attacks with her left arm, she tried taking her fingers and jamming them into the dog's eye. With a whine, the animal recoiled and released its hold on her arm, and she was able to scramble a few feet away and let off another Force Push that sent both dogs back down the stairs. Wasting no time, she scrambled to her feet and, ignoring the pain from her new wound on her arm, made it up one more floor. The door to the roof was now right in front of her.

But the dogs had recovered, though only one was coming after her, as the other one was now partially blinded by Terra's attack and refused to continue chasing her. Still, the second one was not hurt, even after being hit with successive Force attacks, and was closing rapidly as Terra reached the door to the roof. She was unable to turn around in time to face the animal as it tackled her to the ground from behind, her scream echoing through the stairwell, no doubt alerting the approaching Blood Hounds that they were about to finally catch their prey. They were drawing ever closer now, just ten stories below her and closing fast.

The comm that Terra had been holding, now stored in the jacket pocket, was still active and if anyone was on the other side, they could hear Terra's screams, and the growling from the dog as it held her down. Unable to summon the energy for another Force Push, she struggled in vain under the weight of the animal, crying and screaming from the pain as the creature's paws dug into her bruised back. Panic overtook her as she realized that it was over. There was no escape now...

Buzzing. The faint hum of a repulsor gurney. Lights passing in front of tired eyes. Voices arguing over him, bickering as something peeled him apart.

"- Grade III MHB on the occipital lobe - "
"- major fractures along rib cage -"
"He's sustained at least one blaster burn, possibly -"
"Pulse oximetry shows dangerously low levels of -
"I know my job, Shellen. A human male with no history of heart disease should not have a pulmonary infarction at the age of twenty seven. What aren't you telling us?"
"My professional recommendation is excision, followed by augmetics - "
"Get that IV drip in. He needs all the hemoglobin he can get -"
"- it's a wonder he's alive."
"The girl's in worse shape. Did you see her arm? It looked -"
"Do we notify CorSec?"

Finally:

"He's a fighter. If he lives through the night. Keep an eye on him."

Soren woke.

He lay on a hospital bed in a pale, spartan room, lying under a thin blanket.

"You look terrible, Kai." Mickey looked down at him, yellow eyes a combination of amused and concerned. Apart from the fact that her flightsuit was fashionably unzipped and she looked like she needed a sanisteam, she was unchanged from the first day Soren had met her. "Like a mouse with its whiskers cut off. No, don't sit up - Shellen will have my head if you go too fast."

The cold fire spreading inside of him forced him to lie back down. Soren coughed and saw the blanket darken with speckles of something rust-colored. "Omaka?"

The alien nodded. "You've been out for the last twenty four hours. Given what they did to you, I'm surprised you're awake."

Soren stopped, then looked back at Mickey, a look of dawning horror on his face. "What did they do to me, Mickey?"

"Kai, don't freak out -"

"What did they do to me?"

Mickey's tail lashed uncomfortably. "I told them what was happening. Everything I could piece together, anyway. Said you needed to be on your feet as soon as possible. Bio-healing would take too long, so the Omaka docs cheated. They took out your ribcage, did something to it. Something to do with transparisteel, or the price of butter in Coruscant. Doctor talk. They told me you're held together by augmetics - temporary cybernetics. Stuff around your bones to keep from splintering. They attached something to your heart, pancreas and brain, too, and other fiddly human bits."

Soren looked under the sheet, saw the faint red lines across his body where the doctors had flash-cloned skin grafts and inserted augmetics. They lay like track marks on his body. Then, remembering Mickey's mentioning of the words "fiddly human bits," Soren pulled open the band of his trousers.

Mickey's face colored a slightly darker shade of russet. "Not that. That's, ah, not something they messed with. They made a point of mentioning that, just so you wouldn't -"

Soren lay back and sighed. No, that would be a step too far, even for Omakan scientists. "Freak out." He took in a deep breath, surprised to feel no pain from his ribs flexing, then slid out from under the sheets until he was sitting upright on his own. "Am I able to walk?"

"You tell me."

Mickey helped the apprentice to his feet, then take a few steps. Upon getting a feel for the extent of his injuries - and learning to deal with the sensation of tiny beads moving under his skin as he walked - Soren was able to quicken his pace to a brisk walk. Finally, he sat back on the bed and looked up at Mickey. "How are the others doing? Skyle and Terra?"

"Skyle's fine. He's cursing out Shellen as we speak. All he needed were a few thousand micro-stitches and something to keep his insides in place." Mickey grinned. "He's a firecracker. I like him."

Soren frowned. "And Terra?"

"She's... Well, I told them what you originally went to Horst Larr to do. From the way you were holding onto her, though, I thought you must have changed your mind. I asked them to do whatever they could to get her back on her feet, and fix that wound of hers. I don't know if my word carries any weight here. I'm just a pilot." Mickey shrugged.

"So she's okay." Soren sighed in relief. "Thank you. She's... important."

"She's a baby," Mickey replied disapprovingly.

"Not that kind of important." Soren narrowed his eyes. "Besides, she's eighteen. You can't be much older."

"I'm fifty."

The answer brought Soren up short. "Wait - what?"

"Thank you for saying that I look fantastic," Mickey purred.

"I wasn't, but... sure. We'll leave it at that." Soren glanced around the room. "Did Shellen leave me any clothes, or is he just going to have me walk around in hospital gowns for as long as I'm here?"

"Your old skinsuit was a little mangled, so Shellen had a new one brought up. We saved your coat, though." Mickey nodded her head toward the cabinets. "Go on, get dressed. I'll be outside when you're done."

With little other choice in the matter, Soren went to work.

Mickey grinned and called back into the recovery room. "You almost done in there?"

Soren strode out, still feeling weak but strong enough to stand on his own with some measure of confidence. "Yeah. I think I'm good." He exhaled slowly, steadying himself on the doorframe. "Is my mouth supposed to be this dry?"

"Pancreatic augmetic's got your blood sugar and platelet levels all high. The caf fiend over there says that it should speed your recovery." Mickey shrugged. "High blood sugar's supposed to make your kidneys fail and your retinas fall off, but what do I know? I'm not a doctor. I just fly ships." The feline pilot paused and put a claw to her ear, head cocked to the side and listening. Then: "We should go. The Chief's waiting for you both."

"Right." Soren swallowed, then made his way down the corridor, his pilot in close attendance. When he reached Terra's room, he gave a brief knock and then entered.

The room smelled like death, which, considering Terra's appearance, was appropriate. The pale girl looked almost as white as the hospital gown she wore. Soren wondered what "improvements" the Omaka doctors had made - considering Mickey hadn't been there to advocate her, the science-happy engineers and physicians could have turned her into a cyborg from the neck down, all in the name of efficiency and science.

Soren approached, and as delicately as he could, lifted the shoulder of Terra's gown to look at the skin underneath. The skin was still an angry red shade, clearly still painful, but the sunken hole in her body had sealed shut. Soren saw strands of something fleshy stretching across the surface of Terra's skin, connecting each side of the hole with ropes of muscle, blood vessels, nerves, tendons and tissue.

The cosmetic damage would be significant, but Terra would regain the use of her arm.

Soren leaned in, touching her other shoulder, and shook her gently. "Terra. Are you awake?"