The Art of Broken Pieces

2 Porgs to the Rescue

Ben heard the sound of scrabbling on the lowered ramp of the shuttle as he felt the veil that stood between him and the Force begin to weaken. He slammed the lever to close the shuttle doors, mind battering through the last fog towards Rey. He pushed the thrusters, taking them quickly into the higher air above the station and suddenly waves of pain and fear pounded through him.

For a moment Ben's hands stuttered on the controls as he spun the ship's guns downward, and he pulled the Force into him like a drowning man gasping for air. It rolled over him, Light and Dark, and with it Rey's agony shredded his control. Crying out in anger, Ben angled the guns down at the courtyard below, strafing bolts across the earth, tearing it to the ground. Fuel lines... Rey had mentioned the fuel lines. Through the roiling smoke it was impossible to see clear targets, but Ben hammered the base below with bolt after bolt until explosions rocked the shuttle in the sky.

He wanted to run to her, but there was no time for that now. He threw everything he could through their connection-- strength, support, desperation to survive-- and pushed the shuttle into high speed out over the barren rocks of the planet below.

Its flight was rough, stabilizers aged and unused to such abuse, but Ben needed to put as much distance as possible between them and the base before the chain of explosions reached the main fuel cells. The rocks skimmed by below them, updrafts occasionally tossing them one way or the other as he struggled to control the shuttle's path.

Rey's mind was chaos, fading in his senses, and Ben pushed the shuttle harder as a deafening detonation behind them threw the shuttle forward. One wing clipped an outcropping and the shuttle jolted sideways, wounded.

Ben gritted his teeth, fighting the controls as he did the best he could to keep them out of a complete nosedive, aiming the shuttle at a relatively smooth stretch of land and praying her landing thrusters would still engage.

Rey felt his presence surge into her mind, seizing onto her with a furious, powerful hand. Kylo Ren had her.

Kylo Ren?

Ben.

Both. There had always been a vicious gravity to his strength, and now it was anchoring her in consciousness, ordering her to stay awake, stay alive, stay... stay.

Agony pulsed through her, so harsh and intense she wanted to vomit. Rey felt her heart chugging in an odd, stuttering rhythm. She was chugging air in short gasps, pain webbing out from her ribs with every jump of her lungs. She wanted to hold her breath, to stop the pain, but her body refused to listen.

Get up! She told herself. Do it, get up!

She grasped for a thread of power, dizzy mind fumbling. Ben's focus was a stable point, and she pushed into it, followed it to control. The Force responded to her, bending into her grasp, and she clamped down on the pain. She couldn't stop it, but she could focus past it. The Force would guide her...

She shoved energy into her limbs, a rough growl tearing from her throat as she rolled onto her stomach and pushed to her knees. There was a med kit. Imperial ships kept them standard on the passenger's side of the bulkhead. She found the marked case, secured with black webbing, and fumbled it loose.

Adrenaline. That's what she needed. A rush to her senses, to power her heart through...

Her fingers were bloody. The charred seal over her wound had cracked open with her movement, and now her side was wet, blood pulsing bright and hot out over her hand.

She scrabbled at the case's seal and got it open. There were spots around the edge of her vision, but she made her brain a laser, intent on one thing. One of these tubes had to be right...epinephrine. That was it. The tube slipped from her hand, and she watched it roll away from her knee.

Her arms were going stiff. She wanted to lie down. She wanted to sleep. She couldn't.

Rey slumped sideways, flung out an arm, and drew the tube back to her with one last desperate twitch of her mind. It met her fingers. Tiredly, almost as if it were a dream, she jammed it against her thigh and pressed the trigger.