Hunted

XXVII. The Escape

"No. No! NOOO!" Serela screamed, rushing forward and grabbing Phasma's hands as they clutched at her side, trying to support her friend's body as she slumped down to the floor. Serela glanced at the doors expecting to see Hux or the stormtroopers, but instead she saw their two bodies dead in front of the doorway, and a man dressed in plain clothes standing there with a blaster in his hands.

Too devastated to understand or question him being here, she turned back to his victim, watching the blood seeping onto the floor as Phasma struggled to draw breath, both women's hands red with the angry liquid.

The man in the doorway cleared his throat, "Are you Serela of Takodana?" he asked.

She ignored him, holding her friend in her arms and fumbling for the button on her helmet that would allow her to remove it. There had to be a way to fix this, she had to live! Even as she sat there on the cold floor, hoping for a miracle, Serela knew already that Phasma was beyond help. When she looked inside of her friend, she could see a small candle, flickering in a wind and beginning to dim.

"Phasma, Phasma, please, not you... I can't lose you too."

"I-I did w-what I had to d-do... to protect you... and the b-baby..."

Serela didn't know what to say. She had lost her mother first, then Kylo, now this? It was too much to bear. The man behind her came closer, his tense face betraying his anxiety, "Look! I'm here on a rescue mission to find you! I'm with the Resistance. We need to get out of here now if we're going to get you to safety!"

Phasma's throat gurgled as she tried to speak to her, "T-take him, g-get him as far away from here as p-p-possible. Save h-him and y-y-yourself."

That was when she understood that Phasma was talking about the baby, and when she finally found the button again to remove the helmet, she pulled it off and placed her fingers on Phasma's temple, reading her thoughts and last memories before dying. She saw the face of her sister and her niece the day Phasma had left on the ship, both her sister and mother waving a tearful goodbye on the launchpad as Phasma ascended the ramp into the command shuttle for the First Order. She felt the stages of Phasma's feelings towards her and the baby, how they had morphed from irritation and mild concern to this point which had led to her needless death. There was Dark inside Phasma yes, but there in the memories she saw Light too, and she braced herself against the grief threatening to rip from her throat in another scream. Tears blinded Serela as she bent over and bestowed a kiss on the forehead of her captor and rescuer, watching as a few of the droplets fell on the breastplate of her armour when she pulled away.

The man waiting behind her was standing at the open doorway warily, looking both ways waiting for someone to come upon them and make all this for nothing. His eyes were wide with fear, but Serela could not bring herself to leave.

"G-G-Go! Go w-with h-him, " Phasma ordered, her voice even shakier now, "B-Before it's t-too l-l-late."

Her head slumped to the side, the dark red puddle beneath her spreading out further and seeping into Serela's slippers. Her eyes were open, but glazing over as the steady pull of impending death enveloped her.

Letting out a sob in spite of herself, Serela hugged her friends body to herself one last time, "Thank you, my dearest friend, I will never forget you," she promised, and slowly let Phasma's body lay flat against the floor. Devastated, but recounting her dying words, Serela stood to her feet and wiped away her tears with the back of her arm, stepping away from her friend's dead body and looking towards the man in the doorway as if she were completely lost.

"C'mon!" he hissed, beckoning her wildly with his arm while trying to remain quiet.

She stepped towards him and felt the squelching of her feet as she looked down over her protruding belly and saw the blood-drenched slippers on them amongst the hair red with Phasma's blood.