Repairing Beyond Ambition - Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order fanfic *EDITING*

Chapter 9

The sound of their faint crying filled the carriage and mingled with the clunky noises coming from the train itself. They were both shaking with adrenaline and from the cold of their rain-soaked clothing, yet they still embraced each other. She eventually broke the silence with a wavering voice.

"I should be dead."

"Me too." He replied bleakly, letting out a shaky breath.

She looked down at her ankle, a huge gash spread across it, the blood trickling down and mingling into the frazzled remains of her boot. The pain hit her once again and she gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.

"You went after me..."

"I couldn't lose you after losing Prauf." She cried and Cal wiped away her tears with his thumb.

"But look at you, Theeda..." He lamented, glancing at her ankle.

"If it's the price I pay for trying to save you then so be it." She spoke shakily. "I don't know why I ran - what I was going to do. I just had to try something, anything to help you. I'm not sure what good it did. If it did do any."

He sighed and hugged her even tighter, a gentle hand caressing the back of her head. His chin was perched on her shoulder and he breathed in her scent, her hair tickling his nose ever so slightly.

"Do you think he did that as a sacrifice? To try to protect you?" She sniffled.

"I-I think so, possibly." His voice cracked as he tried to cease his crying. "Let's not make it in vain."

She nodded, wiped her tears and dragged her tool box back towards her, this time hoisting it onto her back now she no longer had to hide it from the Stormtroopers. She then ripped a long strip off the bottom of her poncho and used it as a bandage on her ankle to cover the wound and soak up the blood, tying it tightly to secure it. Once she was ready, Cal helped her on her feet and rubbed his shoulder.

"Did you land on your shoulder?"

"Yeah." He grumbled. "I'll be fine though. Can you walk?"

"I'm going to have to aren't I?" Altheeda shrugged.

She then spotted one of the blasters that the Stormtroopers had and hobbled over to pick it up. Every small movement for her was extra effort that she had to upkeep until they reached long term safety. She tightened her grip on the blaster, looking at it uncertainly.

"I haven't fired one of these for a while."

"Do what you can. Stay close, lean on the closest thing to you if you feel your ankle giving way. If there's nothing else, just lean on me."

"I got you." She nodded. "Let's get out of here."

With Cal armed with his lightsaber and Altheeda with her trusty tool box and newly claimed blaster, they proceeded towards the end of the carriage and the doors parted and a strong wind threatened to sweep them away. She clung onto the door frame to stop herself from teetering over on her bad ankle. The ice-cold raindrops peppered their faces once again and he gritted his teeth to stop them from chattering. When he stepped forward into the outside, she followed suit.

Their surroundings whizzed by incredibly fast due to the speed of the train. It felt as if they were trapped in a distorted world of blurriness. Over the roar of the wind and machinery, they managed to pick up more voices, meaning more Stormtroopers. Altheeda spotted a crate towards the center of the coupling and crawled clumsily on the slippery floor towards it to take cover. He began to deflect the oncoming fire from the Stormtroopers when they spotted him and she began to fire shots at them. The first couple she missed but she managed to hit one of them on their arm and Cal did the rest. Once the troopers were eliminated, the pair of them proceeded forward with caution.