Tales of a Comet (A Kylo Ren Story)

Chapter 29 - Remembrance

There was a soft, rhythmic sound coming from my right. It was slowly becoming annoying, then irritating. I realized that I was back from the darkness when pain engulfed my thoughts. The rhythmic sound started to escalate as I began to panic.

A cool hand was placed on my cheek, "Nym?"

Kylo?

I slowly opened my eyes to find Kylo leaning towards me on my left. His pale face was masked with concern as he gently placed his hand through my tangled hair.

"Nym, it's alright. You are in the hospital wing of the new base."

I squeezed my eyes closed because I was becoming dizzy. The pounding in my head caused a wave of nausea to roll through me. I found the rail on my right side and gripped it to get my bearings.

There wasn't a tube down my throat this time, but there were tubes and I.V. lines elsewhere. I gently wiggled my toes, feeling no pain when I moved my lower extremities. I took a deep breath, only feeling the soreness of muscles instead of a sharp pain along my ribs and chest. Finally, I opened my eyes again, looking at Kylo.

He was sitting on the edge of his seat with his right hand on my hair and his left gripping the bed. I tried to move my left arm carefully but felt that it was different. I looked again at Kylo with one eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Your arm was too damaged to save majority of it, but the surgeons were able to keep most of the original skin.", he explained, though his voice started to trail off towards the end of the sentence.

The monitor tracing my heartrate increased its rhythm again, notify him of my panic.

"There's no need to fear or panic Nym. I made sure you had a full recovery and are still able to manipulate the extremity."

"Help me sit up", I said as my voice cracked from disuse.

He placed one of his arms on my upper back and the other wrapped around my front for stability. I slowly sat up, only feeling even more dizzy than before. Regardless, I pushed myself until I was fully sitting up. Kylo adjusted the bed so that I was able to lean back while in a sitting position.

I lifted my arm from under the thin blanket that covered me. The shoulder to the elbow looked normal; not a blemish could be seen other than the freckles that covered my shoulders. I continued to raise my arm until the blanket slid completely off, revealing the menacing image.

About an inch from my elbow was a mixture of both metal and skin. The skin was pink, as if newly sunburned while the pieces of metal that were like patches shimmered between a dark grey and a black color. There was a patch of metal on the dorsal aspect of my hand. It ended when it reached the webs between my fingers.

I realized, thankfully, that heading Kylo's advice of tying my mother's bracelet onto the Kyber crystal necklace was a good idea. I would have lost it if I hadn't chosen to follow it. I gently brushed a piece, causing me to gasp. I could almost feel my touch, though I didn't touch the pink skin.

"I made sure you had sensation throughout. It's a new form of metal that interchanges with your DNA. It's as if there are cells laced within the metal atoms. Quite fascinating if you think about it."

"Sure", was all I was able to whisper as I continued to poke and prod around my newly formed arm. While making my observations, I realized I don't remember how this happened. My eyebrows scrunched in confusion as the monitor began to quicken.

Becoming irritated that I couldn't remember anything from the mission, I tugged at the wires that were sticking on my chest and abdomen until the beeping stopped.