Force Destiny

Blue Shadow

"What did they say?" Finn asked the moment the medbay doors opened to reveal their admiral. Poe was smiling; that had to count for something.

"It's done," Poe replied, smiling. "There will be leaks to several galactic holonews networks. They will broadcast the death of Kylo Ren in Republic Systems Alliance custody at oh-six-hundred Galactic Standard Time."

Finn exhaled slowly and nodded. "Rey's awake; I should go talk to her. I was just waiting to hear from you—"

"I'll talk to her," Poe said, ignoring the raised brow of his friend. "I owe her that."

Poe walked through another blastdoor into the quarantine unit. Nodding to a passing med droid, he swiped a badge and entered the first room on his left. Rey jumped up from her cot, medication lines still attached. The anger and disappointment on her face was clear, but he knew it wasn't enough for her to continue ignoring him. "Why am I here? I should be with Ben!"

"No," he sighed, "they won't allow you within ten meters of that room. Not until you finish three more doses over the next thirty-six hours—"

"But I'm not sick; Ben is!" Rey cried out in frustration as she fussed with entangled medical lines while attempting to step closer. Her glare found him again, and her eyes blazed. Her hands clenched in preparation for a fight.

The realization settled over him slowly. "Have they...not told you yet?"

Rey shook her head through tears. "No one has told me anything!"

Poe found a chair in the corner of the room and dragged it across from her. He sat down, rubbing his hands on his thighs before replying. "I know what's wrong with Ben and why you're here, but you have to promise to stay calm—"

"Poe..."

"Ben...has...the Blue Shadow Virus," he said. Rey shook her head as if she didn't understand, but she knew what he had done. He remembered the hatred in her voice when she called him a murderer. "And you're here because you're...the carrier."

"No, that's not possible," she whispered. Poe was quiet, his eyes on the floor. He knew all of this was his fault, and there was nothing he could say that would make her hate him less. "It can't be possible, the Bacta—"

"Hell, I thought it would, too," he interjected. "I had to run this operation from a medbay room for thirty-six hours when we first got here, because I drank the tea, too. I thought you'd be cured with the Bacta. But it's not a miracle cure, Rey; you know that. It can repair fractured bones, tissue and organ damage, even necrosis, but not infections or viruses—nothing bloodborne. It can treat the damage done but not the virus itself. Hell, the Bacta would have done nothing against the poison, either. You saved him, Rey, whatever you did completely healed him, not the Bacta."

"And the moment I was within a meter of him again," she supplied, "I infected him."

Her eyes welled up with tears, and he wished he had sent Finn to her instead. Poe owed her the explanation, but Finn could have comforted her. He couldn't allow her to believe any of it was her fault. "Because of what I did," he said.

"Because of what you did," she repeated, her eyes meeting his. There was a fire burning in them that was unsettling. "I want you to get out of this room before I do what I promised myself I'd do if I ever saw you again, but first you'll tell me where Ben is."

"Rey," Poe sighed, shifting closer to the "security" button on the wall. "I told you; they won't let you within ten meters of that room."

"I have to save him!" she shouted, but she sounded more fearful than angry. "Then I'll leave this place forever, so he can be safe from me."