Into the Darkness

12

The pilots in the hanger salute me as I approach. I snap my head to meet their gaze.

"Get me a TIE fighter." I say.

"Yes Major." They say and hurry off. A few moments later, I'm climbing into the cockpit of a fighter. I prepare the ship to launch, flipping certain switches and activating weapons systems.

"Liftoff in 3...2..." The commanding pilot says over comms. I lift up with everyone else and soar out of the hangar bay.

"Eira please. Be careful." I hear Hux say to me.

"When am I not, Armitage?" I ask. I hear him quietly chuckle as I approach the rebels. I spot Poe's ship and fly directly for it. I hack into his comms.

"I know what you did, Dameron." I say, starting to fire at him. He evades the shots from my ship.

"You betrayed the Resistance? They told me the First Order took you, I didn't think you would join them!" Poe says, soaring up and around the Star Destroyer.

"I didn't betray the Resistance, they've been betraying me since the beginning! You betrayed me!" There's a long pause.

"What are you talking about?" There's fear in his voice. Panic. He knows exactly what's I'm talking about.

"You were the one person I could trust and you killed my family. You will never be shown forgiveness, and I will never show you mercy." I manage to hit his ship once before he makes a sharp turn.

"Eira-" I narrow my eyes.

"Don't call me that! You destroyed me, now I'm going to destroy you." Just as I finish my sentence, another X-Wing appears beside me. They start firing and before I can dodge it, it blows the wing of my ship off. I go spinning through the void of space towards Hux's Star Destroyer. "Armitage!" I can sense his terror from within the ship. Why can I sense it?

"Eira? Eira!" I crash into the ship, managing to eject out of it moments before. I scrap against the top of the ship, many parts of my body are ripped open from the rough metal. I don't have any sort of air, I attempt to gasp but nothing comes in. "Eira, stay with me. We're coming for you, okay? Just stay awake." Hux's voice is loud in my ear, I'm distracted by the lack of air around me. My grip on the ship starts to weaken. Eventually, my hand slips off and I start to float out into empty space. The battle around me starts to disappear as my eyes droop closed.

...
Hux's POV
...

I can see her out the window, she's floating away from the ship. I immediately drop whatever I was doing and sprint towards the hangar bay.

"We need a rescue team right now! The Major is stuck out there without a ship!" I yell at a soldier.

"Yes General." He says. A large transport ship is prepared with medical staff and oxygen tanks. I climb in and we fly out of the hangar. We approach her, she's not moving. Her eyes are closed, her chest doesn't move. "I'm going for her."

"General-" A soldier starts.

"I'm going for her!" I yell at them. They hook a black cable to my waist and strap an oxygen tank to my back.

"Door open in 3...2..." The door slides open and I propel myself out of the ship. I reach forward for Eira and take her into my arms. She's freezing cold, she doesn't move when I touch her. The usual spark of electricity I feel when my skin touches her's doesn't come. The cable lurches and we're being pulled back to the ship. The door slides shut and the medical staff immediately takes Eira from me.

They lay her down on a bed and start to hook her up to machines. Tubes run up her nose, oxygen pumps through them. They hook up a heart monitor, I stare in fear as it remains a flat line. They press against her chest so many times that I've lost count. I take her hand and hold it in both my hands. I bring it to my forehead and pray to the gods that she will live. That my love will live. Finally, after the last time the medical staff presses on her chest, the line shows that her heart is very slowly beating. Her chest rises and falls, it looks like it's in slow motion. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and kiss her hand.

"She likely won't wake up for a while, but at least she's alive." One of the members of the medical staff says. I nod in agreement and fall to my knees beside her.