The Rebel Queen - Poe Dameron

Chapter XV: Asunder

Koa

"Is she alright?"

"Her vitals are off the charts."

"We should probably put her under again."

No! Koa's mind screamed. I'm not going under again!

"No use. She's waking up. Now."

"Who's going to tell her?"

"Baby steps."

In a haze of confusion and hysteria, Koa began pulling at all the medical tubes and equipment attached to her body. Her eyesight was slowly returning yet the room was nothing but bright flecks of light and smears of colour. Her right eye had a harder time focusing than her left. Something told her not to get too hopeful about ever seeing through it clearly again. The purple marks on her neck and upper spine itched. Watts and Paige tried to restrain her, but somehow she broke free and dropped onto the clean floor like a lead balloon.

A windy grunt left her throat as she tried to use her left arm to grab onto the medical bed. Annoyance struck the back of her head when she realised all she was doing was swinging her stump around. A moment earlier she could have sworn she felt her left hand wiggle at the fingers.

"Rashka!" She swore in her native tongue. Proceeding to mumble confused sentences strung together by whatever coherence her brain managed to conjure up.

Paige bent down to help her up and ended up accidentally catching Koa's elbow to the nose. The stranger she heard earlier–Tao he said his name was–reached his arms out so Paige wouldn't crash on top of him as she stumbled back with a bloody nose. The length of one of his arms and most of his left ear and hairline were brazed by frost burns. Watts was the next to suffer from Koa's forceful awakening. The droid was knocked over from the stool he'd been clamped onto with a heavy thud.

"For the love of—!" Paige pinched her nose to keep the blood from dripping. "Koa it's me! It's Paige! You're safe. Safe on the Somnambulist."

Ton-Ton leveraged Watts until the droid's frame sat upright. "She is showing clear symptoms of mental discountenance," he pointed out as he stared at the ceiling, supine.

"What?" Paige asked, plugging her nose with paper towels.

"She's disoriented," Tao left Paige's side and stood from his medical bed. He hobbled closer to Koa, timing his next move precisely before he managed to wrangle her hand behind her back and hold her still. Ton-Ton jabbed her leg with something thin and sharp, a calmness spreading from her leg upward. She screamed and kicked until the lights grew less bright and the swirls of colours turned into physical things she could identify. Slowly, she was getting a handle on her overstimulated, hyperactive brain.

Her breathing slowed and her heart levelled. Her head was barely supported by her neck, her long hair dangling down to her back, knotted and frizzy.

With a dry rasp, she asked frantically, "How did I get here? Where's Calista? And Zeeke? And Mokk-Toh?"

"Mokk-Toh is with Poe and Odhen in the communications room," Paige offered some clarity.

Koa bit down to stop the muscle in her jaw from twitching, but then her tongue felt the coolness of the titanium snake fused to her tooth and she let her lips tremble. "What happened on Telos?"

"You should sit," Tao tried to set her down on the bed.

Koa pushed him away, "Tell me!"

Paige braced her shoulders, eyes cast downward. Ton-Ton sat beside Watts, his hood covering his face as he mirrored Paige's reaction. The only person looking her straight in the eye was Tao, the stranger.