Survivor: A Star Wars Story

Chapter V

REINA TAUTASKI

"Ra-Kin? What's wrong?" She heard Ahsoka asking her these questions but paid no mind to it.

In almost a trance like state, Reina walked to the crematorium door and pushed it open.  When she'd first arrived, she hadn't understood the need for a crematorium.  But after a year, with the amount of slaves that had died from one thing or another, she understood perfectly.  The whole room was a sterile white, freakishly modern in comparison to the palace, with no windows and just three chutes up the walls and a control board on the right wall. In front of her laid three caskets, all open. In the first two were Zygerrians. Probably guards that were caught in the explosions during the slave auction. But in the third was a very familiar Twi'lek. A lump formed in her throat as she placed a hand on the side of her coffin, trying not to throw up.

The Zygerrians, they'd been cleaned up. They were ready for their cremations. But Thea... it was a far cry from them. Reina dared not to turn her over for she could see where the blood had stained her back from the fall. Her pale skin had shallowed and her whole body was horribly broken and twisted.  She swallowed hard and carefully, she clasped her hands over her stomach and placed her head straight before shutting her eyes. They didn't even have the decency to shut her eyes.

Ahsoka walked in the room to see what she was doing and stopped dead in her tracks. Reina refused to cry.  She'd cried her tears back in the slave quarters. Instead, she just wordlessly stared at the person who had helped her through the darkest times of her life.  Anger just joined the growing pile of fear and resentment that had been bubbling up unhealthily inside of her for seven years.  A hand fell carefully on her shoulder.

"Ra-Kin." Ahsoka said gently.  "We have to go."

She seemed hesitant, and that's when Reina noticed how hard she was gripping the sides of the casket, the metal cutting into her palms and her knuckles were faded to an ashen white.  Bowing her head, she resisted the urge to knock Ahsoka's hand aside and ignored the fact that she was shaking.  It wasn't fair.

Life isn't fair.

Shut up, Reina thought back.

Head, snapping up, she shoved her emotions down and swallowed before grasping Thea's hand tightly.  Pulling it up to her mouth, sh pressed her lips against it.

"Resia al pací, mi vala." Reina whispered hoarsely in a mix of what had been the cursed tongue of Zygerrian which had brought them together, and vala, the Twi-leki word for sister, before stepping away and willing her feet to walk. 

It felt like she had sandbags on her shoulders, but she kept walking anyway.  Thea was all she'd ever known for most of her living memory.  She was the only family Reina had.  But she ignored the swell of self-pity and doubt, she ignored the angry voices telling her to stay, and stalked off towards the hangars where all the ships were kept.  Reina didn't check to see if Ahsoka was following. If she was, she didn't make her presence known by speaking.

"Which one's yours?" The dark haired girl asked monotonously as they got to the hangars. She pointed to a large orange Zygerrian freighter.  Reina curled her lip in distaste but it would have to do. Those particular ships were often used to transport slaves back and forth between worlds.  At least they would be well concealed.  "Let's go then." she said shortly.

As they snuck over to the freighter, they almost ran into guards patrolling the area several times, but she managed to hold Ahsoka back the few times that she was about to bolt out. They got over to the freighter and Ahsoka ran into the cockpit as she looked around the cargo hold for anything that may have been useful. Reina was just searching through some boxes when she heard the yell of a guard behind her.