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too-lit-for-fanfic · 29 days

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Desiderium: Whelve

Part IV of ???

Masterlist

Part V

* To bury something deep; to hide *

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Disclaimer - DNI if under the age of 18. This is a dark and mature story involving themes of torture, substance abuse, addiction, trauma, PTSD, injury detail

Word Count - 10k

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The silence that followed the wreck was more terrifying than when the ship had screamed its way through the forrest, leaving nothing but a torrent of destruction in its violent path towards the planet's surface. The sirens had stopped, the engines had ceased their screeching, and the skeleton of the ship itself heaved out a sigh as the metal collapsed inwards, nothing but a heap of scrap metal left behind. No one made a sound, no voices, no wildlife, no chirping sparrows or chittering critters, nothing but the creaking of the nearby trees, their branches straining under the weight of debris.

A T-shuttle swept overhead, jetting off into the distance with a mighty shrill, white plumes splitting the atmosphere.

Obi-wan heaves himself from the wreckage, a fist tightly clamped over Leia's wrist and dragging her behind him. His face stained grey concealed his sickly pallor, and his hair stood on end in any and all directions. The world spun on its axis, and he knelt, panting heavily, on a thick piece of sheet metal, blinking furiously to clear the smog and soot from his eyes. Just before the ship had crashed into the planet, he had managed to launch himself towards Leia, wrapping her in his arms and using what strength he had to harness the force to protect them from the metal around them. They had been thrown around and battered, with smoke-clogged throats and stammering hearts, but managed to emerge from the wreck largely unscathed.

He felt dizzy, he felt sick, and if Leia wasn't watching him so intensely he would've heaved his guts out right then and there, such strenuous use of the force splitting his mind and body, his skull brooding a terrible ache.

"You're okay." He pants, sitting up straight on his knees, both hands falling on Leia's shoulders to pull her close, half to prop himself upright. "You're okay." She was ashen underneath the dirt and dust that caked her skin, and she still fiercely clutched onto his cream blanket, wide eyes wild and unblinking. She nods once, twice, tear tracks cleaning rivulets down her cheeks. Obi-wan smiles to himself, despite the landing her braids had stayed in. His head spins back towards the wreckage: her braids. Aeris.

He stands shakily, careful not to dislodge the metal he stood on, and finally takes in the scene before him. The ship lay in a staggering heap, nestled within a circumference of trees, all singed and broken and creaking dangerously with the wind. Their path through the tree-line was mockingly obvious, with a clear striking of charred and flattened foliage leading straight to the crash site. The engines had dislodged from the ship just before its landing, and lay, charred and smoking with fires flickering within, 10 foot away from the main chunk of metal on which Obi-wan stands. It had been their explosion that had sent the ship plummeting to the ground, and Obi-wan could clearly see scorch marks travelling up the body of the ship from its rear. The main body of the ship had faired far better, somewhat protected from the engines, and not taking the brunt of the landing like the cockpit, but still lay in disarray with cargo-boxes strewn about.

He steps cautiously, slowly heading towards where the front of the ship should have been, Leia's hand tightly clasped within his own.

"Aeris!" He calls, no hope in his chest as he surveys the front of the ship. It had taken the brunt of the landing, and lay in a shattered heap, caved in upon itself, console split in two. He swallows thickly, brushing soot from his face with his sleeve as his eyes search steadily. He didn't feel any sort of fondness for the girl, he could admit, but he would have to be some sort of monster to not worry about her fate, and which state he may find her in. He nearly flinches when he spots her maroon blanket in the wreck, cringing away from the red with a thickness coating his throat and tongue. "Aeris?" He calls again, guiding Leia away from the blanket. He breathes deeply, attempting to steady his heart. Another person he had had a hand in killing.

Glass glittered along the entire front of the wreckage, glinting at him from his vantage point atop a round curvature of metal, furrowed brows and darkened eyes travelling slowly across the scene.

"Aeris!" Leia shouts next to him, hands cupped around her mouth. Somewhere in the distance, a tree falls, bellowing on its way. "Ben, Ben do you think-" Leia's voice is small, hands clenching around her blanket.

"I'm going to look. You're going to stay here." He leans down, ready to drop the short distance into what he presumed would have been the doorway to the cockpit.

"But-!"

"Leia, please." He grasps her shoulders firmly, halting her in place. "Stay here."

Leia frowns, wide glossy eyes staring back at him. He falls the distance to the cockpit, landing ungracefully and wincing at an agitated agony in his shoulder. Perhaps he hadn't gotten away completely unscathed. The cockpit was silent, with nothing but the shattering of glass beneath his feet and the groaning of the steelwork under him. "Aeris?" He calls again, ducking beneath a horribly disfigured arch of metal, using the force to ensure it wouldn't topple onto him.

"Aeris!" He shouts to nothing in particular, slowly clambering over a piece of metal jutting up from the floor-sheet, eyes finally landing on the pilot's console. He swallows at the image, brows creasing and what little hope that had festered in his chest diminishing in an instant. It had been split, jagged with electricity spluttering and sparking from its spliced wires, straight-through on its left side. Not a single piece of glass remained in the viewport, and yet comically the pilot's seat looked untouched.

Something shifts, and he freezes in place, hands outstretched at either of his sides, eyes wide and ears straining. Something jumps in his throat, but he doesn't dare swallow for fear of missing another noise.

"Aeris!" He feels the strain to his throat, but refuses to cough nor swallow, head tilting to the side and every muscle in his neck tense.

A hiss, a pained pitiful thing, catches on the wind and nearly sweeps straight past him. His head snaps back towards the console and he steps cautiously, feet taking him as fast as he was able. He nearly jumps backwards when a gloved hand lands atop the console, a pale shaking fist, clawing at the dead-buttons, with a body slowly following its heaving efforts.

"Aeris!" He shouts again, his chest swelling and dread lifting, hurrying over to the shallow gap beneath the console, finding her wedged between the console and pilot-chair, and already clawing her way out from underneath it. It was a miracle.

"Obi-wan," She hisses tightly, both arms attempting to haul herself up from the floor, using the creaking console as support, with one leg propped up against the floor. Her hair hangs in wild locks around her head, thoroughly wind-swept and looking lightly singed, her face morphed into a carefully constructed neutral, despite the soot and dirt that marred it.

Whatever she was about to say dies on her lips as his hands land on her shoulder and forearm, attempting to guide her steadily to her feet. "Are you okay? What happened?" He questions slowly, chest rising and falling rapidly despite his outward calmness. He surveys her hunched figure fully, and is amazed at the notable lack of blood. "Slow down, slow down."

"'m fine." She grits out, and yet as soon as she straightens fully her legs buckle, falling sideways into the console with a pained gasp. The only thing preventing her from crashing into the floor being Obi-wan's strong grip on her forearm and hip.

"No, no you're not." Obi-wan tries to ease her back down into a sitting position, but she pushes his hands away in a lame attempt to be stubborn. He remains half-squatted, her attempt at remaining full height only barely being taller than his hunched figure. Blood drips from somewhere along her hairline as she leans forward, shaking hands grasping at his forearms as she tries to steady herself through shallow breaths. His eyes fall to her legs, attempting to spot the cause of her turmoil, but they look surprisingly steady for a woman whose hands he could feel shake against him.

"Breathe." He instructs softly, looking up at her through her wild locks. Her eyes stare emptily at the floor between them, brows furrowed and lips parted, shallow rapid breaths falling from her lips. "Aeris, you need to breathe. Slowly, in and out."

"I- I can't." She breathes again, shaking her head lamely and hands leaving his arms to rest back against the console. He attempts to place a hand against her spine, intending to help instruct her to regain control of her breathing as he had done for many comrades throughout the years, but as soon as his palm connects with her side, a horrible shriek catches in her throat, eyes clenching shut and nails digging into his arms as she folds into herself. It takes all of his strength to catch her and lower her gently to the steel floor. He crouches next to her, one hand on her shoulder, keeping her propped up against the console, and the other hovering cautiously, unsure where to touch.

"Don't-" She gasps out, attempting to regain control despite a dwindling lack of oxygen reaching her lungs. "I just, need a minute." One of her hands comes up to rest against her forehead, trying to stem the blood that seemed to drip incessantly. "m fine."

"Aeris, trust me, you're going to pass out if you don't breathe. With me, just once; in." He breathes in deeply, watching as she attempts to do the same. Her fists clench atop her knees as she breathes in slowly, breath shaking unsteadily in her throat until she's grimacing and another groan catches in her throat, teeth clenched and head rocking forward to hide her face from view. Her fists twitch on her knees, shaking hands jerking involuntarily towards her torso. It is only then Obi-wan realises.

"Show me." He commands, both hands in his lap as he kneels next to her, her blood-shot eyes snapping towards him, still hunched over herself and hands gripping at the material covering her thighs. "Your torso, let me see."

"I-" She pauses, chest rising and falling erratically, unable to think due to the flickering spasms that lit up her torso like fire with every pained breath. "It's fine, I just-"

"You can't breathe." Obi-wan states matter of factly, and yet she feels as if she is being scolded with the look he sends her. She hesitates, gasps leaving her chest in an attempt to calm her speeding heart. Her eyes close and brows furrow, fingers tentatively curling around the hem of her shirt. She tugs the material gently, wincing with every shift of fabric against tender skin. When she feels she has exposed most of the damage she pauses, eyes falling on Obi-wan's ashen features.

'That is not from the landing' is the first thing Obi-wan thinks, staring with a clenched jaw at the lashings of magenta and maroon that encircled her torso, her right side practically engulfed. He could see her ribs press painfully against the tender skin, and strips of flesh-coloured tape winding around her ribcage, pulling at the skin with every breath. His hand approaches hesitantly, thick fingertips barely grazing a particularly dark smattering before Aeris is hissing out through clenched teeth and twisting away from him. "They're broken, I'm sure of it."

"No, shit." She bites out between breaths. "I was thrown," another breath. "against the console."

"I can't do anything here." Obi-wan reasons calmly, not rising to her temper. "Come on, we have to get somewhere safe. Those shuttles could be back any minute." He offers her his right arm, the incredulous look she send him doing little to dissuade his desire to help. With a sigh and a grunt, she grabs ahold of his robed forearm, tentatively rising to her feet. She flinches away from his left hand that comes to rest flat and heavy against her left side. He notices her apprehension. "It'll hurt, but it'll help."

"I need my bag." She mutters, hazy eyes sweeping the cluttered cockpit as they shuffle back in the direction Obi-wan had come from. He pauses, quickly spotting the small satchel half buried beneath an indented wall. His left hand flies out, palm outstretched as the bag lands in his grasp. Aeris looks particularly unamused by the action, but takes her bag from him with a gracious nod.

Slowly, agonisingly so, the pair shuffle amongst the wreckage, Aeris half-hunched and breathing through her teeth as Obi-wan attempts to find the least hazardous way back out of the wreckage.

"Ben!" Leia calls excitedly, hopping down from her vantage point. Her eyes immediately fall on the woman reluctantly in his grasp, who now stared in stunned disbelief at the soot-covered blanket-hugging girl in front of her. "Aeris!"

"You- you're both-" She promptly decides to close her mouth, her jaw swinging shut with a click and her brows furrowing further. She sways on the spot slightly, and Obi-wan's grip on her side tightens, pulling her minimally closer. She was stubborn, he knew, but she also looked a strong breeze away from collapsing into a boneless heap. He could practically see the cogs in her brain slowly churning, and knew it wouldn't be long until they ground to a sudden and irreversible halt.

"Leia, take her bag. We need to get away from this ship and somewhere safe for the night."

The sky above the trio hung light and watery above their heads, baby blue with wisps of feather-light clouds dotted across the atmosphere, a tiny blinding sun creeping past its midpoint in the sky. Streams of pink and orange had begun to creep over the horizon, signally the end of a day.

Leia steps forward, Aeris reluctantly allowing her to pull the small satchel from her clenched fist, missing the opportunity she had to dig her nails into something. Leia quickly looks away, beginning to lead the two back out of the wreckage, uncomfortable with the amount of blood that spilled from Aeris' brow.

"How are you both alive?" She questions, blinking harshly and lamely wiping at the stream of blood that dripped steadily from her hairline.

"Luckier than most, for once." Obi-wan mutters, calling for Leia to turn right and head deeper into the thick of the forest. Hopefully, they would find a place to shelter for the night. Even more hopefully, they would last long enough to make it that far.

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The trio had been walking for hours, Leia leading and swinging Aeris' bag around with little care in the world. Obi-wan and Aeris on the other hand, had had to fight and stagger against the foliage the entire way, the thick and intricate root systems that carpeted the forest floor making the journey longer and more laborious than it should have been. Tall, domineering trees hung high above their heads, with a thick layer of leaves and interwoven branches chocking out a majority of the sunlight, which barely managed to illuminate the forest floor in spotted and sparse clusters of light. Surprisingly, the trees were hollow inside after about a foot of bark, and many head great splits and fissures down their sides exposing their hollow innards. The air was cool and damp, and a comforting scent of moss and earth encapsulated the whole forest floor.

Aeris felt physically sick, her brain feeling as though it was trying to squeeze its way out of the gash on her head. Each step she took sent the horizon flipping and rocking before her, and each foot-fall sent smoke billowing towards the campfire that had engulfed her ribcage, each rib creaking of its own accord as she struggled to stagger through the brush. Using what little consciousness she clung to, she felt her anger bubbling up against her throat. She had been doing fine, good even, the adrenaline from the chase making her forget completely about her injuries. Truthfully, she had felt better in those few fleeting moments that she had in days, and then she had gone head-first into the navigation console, her head absorbing most of the impact as she had been ungracefully thrown around the cockpit like a rag doll. She had managed to secure herself under the console, clinging to a jutting piece of metal for dear life, before her head had smacked against something and then she had awoken feeling like death. Not even able to breath without seeing spots dancing across her vision from the pain of it. Nothing had improved since then.

To make matters worse, or rather, better for everyone else except her, no one else had so much as a scratch. She didn't want Leia or Obi-wan to be injured, definitely not Leia, but this must've been some sort of cruel joke. She was being mocked, the universe was mocking her, and a spotless Jedi practically carrying her through the forest was just the right method of mockery to have her wanting to rip her own throat out.

They had been travelling in quiet silence for hours, Aeris deciding to sacrifice her pride and swing her right arm across Obi-wan's broad shoulders instead of using his forearm as a crutch. Her fingers had grown numb from the effort, and she couldn't help but release a sigh as her weight shifted from her battered torso to the shoulders of the Jedi next to her. She didn't want his help, but it was becoming increasingly evident she needed it.

She hadn't been this close to someone in a vulnerable capacity in nearly 10 years, and she was thankful her brain struggled to cling to its anger, embracing the empty confusion and pain over whatever feelings of panic would have spiked if she could truly appreciate her situation.

When Aeris' body finally collapsed, she couldn't even blame it on an upturned root or a particularly hard clump of grass. No, her legs had simply buckled and she had nearly gone slipping out of Obi-wan's grasp if he had been a moment slower. He winces at the tug on his shoulder as Aeris' weight suddenly falls against him, but her inability to shift back into some attempt at standing has his concern flaring.

"Aeris?" He questions sternly, hand squeezing tight around her wrist thrown over his right shoulder. "Aeris, what's wrong?"

"I-" Oh, everything was spinning horrendously. She squeezes her eyes shut tight, but even the darkness behind her eyelids swims as she tilts to the side, pulling away from Obi-wan but him not allowing her to. "Everything's moving." She tries to explain, suddenly feeling the cool earth beneath her legs and warm hands pressing her back up against the rough bark of a tree.

"My head." She finalises, as if that explained exactly what was wrong, both hands coming up in an attempt to stop her head from spinning. She blinks harshly, trying to clear the spots from her vision, the hazy figure of Obi-wan wobbling in front of her.

"Yes, you're concussed. You're been slurring your words ever since I found you." Obi-wan sounds as if he's boredly reciting a ships manual, but Aeris is too busy trying not to throw up over them both to really listen to the tone he used. "We've made it further than I'd hoped, we'll stay here for the night."

Leia's little face pops into her peripheral, and despite the pain in her side Aeris makes an effort to push her away, shoving a little too harshly. "Stay away, I'm gonna be sick."

"You won't be sick, you're hardly green enough for that." Two hands firmly pull her own away from her face, and she flinches as two warm hands unexpectedly grasp either side of her face, eyes popping open in alarm. It took everything in her not to smack his hands away, but she could barely feel her own at the moment. "You'll be fine, but you need to slow down and listen."

The parental tone has her fingers twitching at her sides, heavily considering what would happen if she punched him square in the jaw. She'd probably get stabbed through by a lightsaber, she muses, but at least she'd have gone out swinging.

"You feel so bad because you're still not breathing. I know it hurts but you have to breath. You're slowly starving yourself of oxygen, and your brain will eventually shut you down and force you to give it the oxygen it needs."

"You're full of shit."

"Perhaps, but I'm also correct." His hands pull away from her face, beckoning Leia over as he instructs. "Breathe with me, in." And despite her frustrations, she listens. Sucking a timid breath in through her lungs, and promptly pausing as soon as it got to a point where that fire licked against her lungs. "That's it, through the pain. In." If she hadn't been so furious, she would've been humiliated, but she listens, for no other reason than to get him to shut up. Her hands grip against the fabric covering her thighs as she continues to breath in, finally stopping when it became too unbearable. She repeats, once, twice, each breath shaky, but her vision stilling with every rise and fall of her chest.

"Better?" Was that arrogance she heard? She couldn't bring herself to care as the world slowly stills around her, blinking rapidly as he finally settles into focus.

Aeris begins to nod, but promptly decides that is a bad idea as she physically feels her brain flop around her skull with the movement.

"I can feel my brain."

"That's good, I was beginning to worry you didn't have one." She sees red, and if Obi-wan hadn't taken that moment to grasp both of her wrists firmly, he would've had a blaster shot straight through his head. "Your heart rates coming down and you already sound better. You were depriving yourself of oxygen. Keep breathing."

She hadn't even noticed she had stopped, and focussed back on the agonised rise and fall of her chest. Fists returning to their spot against her thighs as Obi-wan places her satchel between them. "Any cloth inside?"

"No."

"Needle and thread?"

"The front pocket." Aeris watches carefully as he unzips the front pocket, body tense as he sifts through its contents before pulling out a small sealed pack, a titanium needle glinting inside. She would've made some effort to push her bloody locks from her face, but she couldn't bring herself to unclench her fists from around her legs as she focusses on breathing.

Obi-wan materialises a small flask of water from within his robes, pouring the last few drops onto the corner of Leia's blanket with some before turning to Aeris with a quiet air of timidity, as if anticipating she would bite his hand off if he misplaced a single digit. He shuffles closer, minimally, knee pressing against her outer thigh. Aeris' jaw clenches as Obi-wan's hands approach, amber eyes staring at him intensely as the cloth finally dabbles along her cheek and chin. He makes an effort to clear all the blood from her features, slowly and steadily making his way to her hairline, where he parted the hair strands as best he could.

It is only when she allows him this close that he notices the healing abrasion along her right cheek, the small stretch of glossy-skin indicating the tell-tale signs of a wound recently healed. Her left eye was the main attraction, with soft hues of blue and yellow encircling a blood-shot eye. He controls his gaze fervently, not daring to allow himself to linger too long. What had she been doing before she had come crashing down that alleyway?

He splits her parting when he finally reaches the cause of the problem, a pronounced gash travelling across the left side of her scalp, with a crusting layer of dried blood beginning to form. His movements are practiced and methodical, not betraying the squirming anxiety that nestled in the cavity of his chest, mind a million lightyears away in a life that had been destroyed a decade ago. Aeris remains silent as he works, even when he begins stitching the wound back together, rigid and unmoving with her eyes hazily surveying their surroundings.

Sat on a particularly large upturned root only 5 steps away sits Leia, watching the interaction with a frown.

He beings packing the needle away, eyes falling from her features as he begins to talk. Already anticipating a fight. "Your ribs need tending to. Lay down so I can have a look."

"No." Is her immediate response, and Obi-wan looks up at her from beneath his auburn locks, not even raising his head to address her. "I couldn't see my head, I can see my ribs. I am more than capable of sorting them." She holds a shaking hand out, waiting for her bag expectantly.

What she really wanted to say was 'Fuck off before I do or say something I'll regret. Stop staring at me with those eyes, stop talking in that tone, stop offering to help, stop making me remember, you are cruel. Stop, stop, stop.'

With a sigh, Obi-wan hands the satchel back, and she immediately pulls her helmet from it, all of her medical supplies tumbling out from the helmet and back into the satchel. He watches as she doesn't even regard a bacta-patch, placing it down delicately beside her in favour for a stim. She tugs her sleeve up, but just before she can plunge the syringe into her wrist Obi-wan's hands fly out to stop her, gripping her fist tightly.

She looks to him, startled, stim hovering mere inches from her pale wrist. "What? You want me to walk around unmedicated?"

"I want you to be able to walk." He draws her fist gripping the syringe away from her wrist, holding it steady in the air between them. "This won't do anything."

I have been managing. She curses him inside her own head, fingers flexing around the syringe as she eyes him warily, assessing how best to argue this. She had been running around on god-knows how many broken ribs for the last two days, and now he was going to lecture her on her capabilities? She glowers at him from her position collapsed agains the trunk of a tree, a muscle in her jaw ticking. Using a bacta-patch was out of the question, no way would she allow herself to waste one of those on a matter as insignificant as pain.

"We're not using anything more valuable than a stim unless we have to." She states fiercely, attempting to tug her wrist free. Obi-wan is bigger and stronger, and her jostled muscles and inability to breath fully has her strength diminished. "I have all night to heal."

"You won't heal." Obi-wan allows her to struggle against his hold on her fist, watching with contemplative eyes. "Stims are for small injuries, they're essentially a glorified adrenaline boost. Half of its 'healing' will go to your head, which doesn't need it, and your ribs will still be broken."

"I know how they fucking work."

"Then you know you'd only be wasting one, and you would be just as slow and pained tomorrow."

Oh, how she hated the look he was giving her, blood broiling within her veins as she glowers back; why did he care? She could deal with the pain, she could deal with the pleasant numbness that coated her brain, she did not want to be able to think, and if drugs were out of the question on this journey, pain would do.

"I will be good tomorrow."

"I've been practically dragging you for the last two hours of our journey, you really consider that good progress? You think you will fair much better after sleeping on a forest floor?" Obi-wan comments as if the woman he was trying to reason with had any capacity to reason, even on a good day. His temper was flaring, but he remained as calm as he could manage, clearly there was something more to her reluctance.

"I don't need your help." And suddenly, the issue wasn't just the bacta-patches. I don't want it, not from you.

"Yes, you do."

She stares at him, grip tightening on the stim as his eyes bore back into her own, some of his spark returning. You couldn't save us a decade ago - her memories swirl with the anger that fogged her mind, of the bodies that littered the streets, piled high above her head; the scar at the back of her neck itches - I certainly don't need a Jedi now.

Obi-wan watches the woman before him, gaze flitting about her face in some effort to understand what the problem was. She needed to be healed, and she was evidently in a great deal of pain - she had stopped breathing properly, again - and yet she continued to fight against him, wasting a resource for the sake of another, refusing help despite the fact she could barely hold her own head up. Outwardly she looked relatively okay, wild hair and dirt-crusted clothes aside, but he could sense her exhaustion radiating from the grip he had against her.

"We need your help to get off this planet, and you won't be any use like this."

She hesitates, grip around the stim beginning to fall lax, the muscles in her arm screaming at her to let it go, to rest, to just accept the help. She breathes deeply, once, blinking away the dots that had begun to creep back into her vision, eyes falling down Obi-wan's frame and back up again. All she could see before her was the Jedi Order, and all her memories chanted back at her; betrayal, disappointed, abandoned, and then debt, debt, debt.

"Please." Leia's quiet voice breaks the tense silence, Aeris' dark gaze falling to the girl, who now stood wringing her hands together.

Obi-wan notices the shift in her eyes, from frantic fury to melancholic acceptance, gingerly pulling the stim from her grasp and allowing her arms to fall back against her sides. "Jacket off," He instructs, placing the satchel next to him. "and lay down."

"Leia," He doesn't watch Aeris shrug off her jacket - placing it in a crumpled heap as she gingerly lays down against the cool dirt floor, grimacing all the while - focussing instead on Leia to offer her some privacy. "can you please gather some little twigs and sticks and stack them somewhere nearby? Stay where I can see you."

He glances down at Aeris, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. The barely concealed fury on her face was almost laughable, but the way every muscle in her body seemed wound tight and ready to lurch at the crunch of a leaf had him quickly remembering the seriousness of the situation. He repositions, crouching next to her on one knee, both hands hovering lightly over the shirt that hid the damage from view. With a deep breath, he curls his fingers around the bottom of her grey shirt, careful not to graze her skin as he does.

"I'm going to lift this, slowly." He narrates as he slowly lifts the garment higher, approaching her like a wounded animal - one unannounced move, and she would attack and he would be her unfortunate prey. When his knuckles brush against the binding on her chest, he places the shirt as gently and respectfully as he can against her chest, pulling his hands away quickly and resting one outstretched hand atop his knee.

"Oh my-" A hand comes up to cover his mouth, rubbing against his beard. The sight before him was far worse than he had expected, only catching a quick and rather distracted glimpse at her torso earlier. She was a trim and athletic woman, and that meant her ribs had little padding, and now pushed against her battered skin with every small breath, the ridges between them overtly visible even despite the discolouration. Dark and hideous hues of maroon and magenta splattered unceremoniously along her hips and stomach, concentrated clusters winding up either of her sides and carrying on underneath the binding on her chest and around towards her spine. His bright eyes follow a particularly worrisome lashing of near-black snaking up and around her right side, encircling a worrying sight indeed. The thing that made his face ashen and his stomach churn, as well as a simmering of guilt to wallow in his stomach, was the very prominent bone protruding from under her skin just beneath her breast binding, the tip of the jagged indent of flesh encrusted in a layer of dried blood.

He swings his jaw shut as soon as he realises he had been somewhat gawking at the sight, carefully schooling his expression into a blank slate, gaze not lifting from the wound as he continues. "If you'd have told me about this I wouldn't have marched us along for hours. Aeris, this is bad."

The bone wasn't actively protruding from her flesh, which was just about the only positive he could spin on this situation. His hands hover hesitantly, drawing back to his chest as he thinks. Not for one minute did he believe that these bruises were from the past two days they had known each other, and would wager a fair amount that these broken ribs had existed before their time together too, but he could say for certain that that was an ill-fated amalgamation of a broken rib and an unfortunate crash landing. He had been dragging her along for hours, aware of her pain and convinced her sluggishness had just been a side-effect of the concussion. He sucks a breath between his teeth, pit in his stomach growing with every second he stared at the wound. "You should have told me."

His gaze finally lifts to her face, her neck straining to lift her head high enough to see the cause of his concern. She stares down at the wound silently, face once again indistinguishable aside from the knitting of her brows. She rests it back against the floor silently, staring at the canopy several hundred feet above their heads.

"I told you I couldn't breathe."

"That's normal with a few broken ribs, but this?" He stares back as her chest rises again, slowly, and this time he can physically see the way her ribcage clenches in pain as she forces her lungs to fill with air.

"I didn't know. I didn't have chance to see them before you dragged me away from the crash." Obi-wan gingerly pulls the flesh-coloured medical tape from her torso, the ease with which it pulled away from the skin indicating it had been in place quite some time.

The pair sit for several moments, nothing but the sound of Leia's quiet humming as she prowls the area looking for sticks breaking the tense silence. A hand continues to rub at Obi-wan's beard as he thinks, calling back on all of his medical training from his days as a Jedi soldier. Aeris continues to state into the middle-distance, deciding it was better to not think about the bone sticking out of her side and allow Obi-wan to handle this one; he had been so persistent to help, he could figure this out. She swallows thickly, feeling somewhat justified in her reaction to the pain she had been feeling the past several hours. It actually wasn't too bad when her weight was completely relieved from her torso, and she has to blink harshly to prevent her eyes from drooping, vision blurring in and out of focus.

Obi-wan shifts, kneeling fully and pulling his sleeves up to his elbows. Both of his hands hands hovering over her stomach, brows furrowed in concentration, and lips tugging into a light frown. "I can move them back into place, all of them." He states, watching Aeris' eyes follow his hand movements. "I won't touch you but the force-"

"I know," she interrupts, wincing as she props herself up on her elbows, not liking the way he loomed above her. "I've seen this before."

He decides to question her about that later. "Then you know this will hurt."

"I know."

He watches as she reaches behind herself, pulling her discarded jacket towards her and wringing a sleeve between her fists tightly. She lays back silently, taking one final deep breath before clenching the material between her teeth.

He would start with the worst first, both hands hovering mere centimetres above the protruding rib. Her chest ceases all movement as she closes her eyes, hands wrapping around roots blanketing the floor, forearms flexing as she braces herself. He allows the force to flow through him in a way he hadn't in a very long time, eyes staring unwavering as he feels the curve of her bones beneath his fingertips, wrapping around it gently, breathing out deeply from his parted lips.

"Do try to relax."

A sickening crack reverberates through the force as the bone snaps back into place, an ear-splitting shriek following. Aeris lurches, feet nearly kicking her away from the man knelt over her, jerking involuntarily, the only thing keeping her in place the vice-like grip she had around roots that she nearly tore from the floor. Her face crumples in pain as her torso twists away from his hovering hands, every muscle rigid as she struggles to re-compose her dignity. Her vision immediately tips towards the darkness ebbing at her peripheral, and she has to concentrate greatly to stop herself from succumbing to it wilfully.

"Ben?!" Leia shouts from behind him, and he calls back dishonestly.

"She's fine!" His eyes don't lift from Aeris' tense torso, every muscle straining beneath her skin as she breathes shallowly. "Stay over there for a few minutes!" His hands hover over the next rib, sensing its slightly crooked positioning and channeling the force to carefully wind around his next task. "Brilliant." He comments to the air, unsure if he was talking to the woman glaring up at him from the floor, or to himself for using the force again after so long. "Don't forget to breathe."

The next snaps back into place with a far less theatrical crack than before, but he can still feel the twisting of muscle and the spiking white-hot heat of nerves travelling up through the force, the pain not quite reaching him, but making itself known none-the-less. An aborted whine catches in Aeris' throat, high-pitched and breaking, feet now braced against the floor and head twisted to the side. Her torso flinches away from him, but she largely remains in place, a chocked 'fuck!' forcing its way around her gag as Obi-wan moves his hands lower.

The next two ribs jolt into place much like the second, the last being on her left side, and Obi-wan pulls his hands away quickly, resting them against his thighs as he breathes steadily, sweat beading along his forehead and gathering at his nape. Aeris sinks into the floor beneath her, lazily pulling her jacket from her mouth and flexing her fingers at her sides, aching from the grip they had had against the earth.

She groans before she can stop herself, having to take a deep breath after so long choking around a gag. She grimaces up at the canopy overhead, and rubs at her involuntarily glossy eyes.

"Not so bad, was it?"

Obi-wan was dancing on dangerously thin ice, and Aeris sends him a glare to emulate how close he was to falling through it. He smiles regardless, a mocking self-determined up-twitching of the lip which has the corners of his eyes creasing. He gently picks up the bacta-patch he had rested on top of her satchel, smoothing out the creases across his lap. Aeris had been too distracted looking down at her considerably flatter and less nausea-inducing ribcage, but when her eyes finally land on the patch being prepared, her brows furrow.

"Put it away." She all but demands, propping herself up on her elbows. Her lips twist in some semblance of a grimace, but she's good at hiding her pain, playing it off as her biting at a dry patch on her lip. "No need to waste it."

Obi-wan stares at her disbelievingly, continuing to run his fingers over the bacta-patch. "You can't be serious." Aeris did not look like the kind of woman to joke. "Your ribs are still broken, they're just finally in the right place, no longer sticking out of your skin."

"Yes, and now they're where they're supposed to be, they'll be far better in the morning."

Obi-wan takes a deep breath. "We're going in circles." Aeris watches him closely, amber eyes unrelenting. "You need this, the puncture you rib left in your skin will get infected in this kind of climate." Realising the woman before him was not so easily swayed by the reality of her morality, he quickly changes approaches. "We need you to help us get home, so that means we need you fit and healthy. That means using at least one bacta-patch. Soldiers were usually given at least two for this kind of injury."

She stares at the object in Obi-wan's hands as if she were being prepositioned to throw away the most priceless diamond in the galaxy. Truthfully, using it would make her life over the next few days so much easier, filled with so much less pain, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She stares at the patch, thinking of all the times she had been caught without medical supplies, of all the times she had watched someone die uselessly, hopelessly, incapable of being able to do anything other than watch, or end their suffering quicker. But, a small part of her mind nagged, would not using it just lead to two more dead bodies later down the line, too slow to protect them.

With a deep breath, she lies back onto the ground, one arm behind her head. "Be quick, it's getting dark."

Obi-wan sets to work quickly, one hand peeling the patch from its sterile wrapping and the other delicately attempting to pull the edges of the wound together. Aeris inhales sharply as he pinches the sensitive skin, but the cooling effect of the bacta-patch being smoothed across it quickly makes up for the discomfort. After ensuring the edges had sealed tightly against her skin, Obi-wan shuffles back, wiping his hands on his robe-like jacket as he stands, fighting the urge to assist Aeris as she stands too. She turns from him as she tugs her top back down, reached for her jacket, and it's then that he catches a glimpse of the bruising that dotted along her back and spine. He catches one that looks unmistakably like a boot imprint, and he has a horrible feeling that if those on her front weren't so layered and swollen, or those on her arms so faint, the origin would be evidently the same.

He clears his throat as she turns back to him, shrugging her jacket back on despite the temperature.

"Leia, have you-?"

"I've got the firewood!" Leia's chipper voice calls, the young girl bounding up next to him with several clumps of wood in her hands. "I've put the pile over there!"

"Brilliant, thank you."

"I wouldn't recommend lighting the fire out here." Aeris calls as the three head to the sizeable stack of firewood placed against the bark of a nearby tree. "We don't know what's in these woods, don't want to bring attention to ourselves."

Obi-wan nods, helping Leia gather the pile from the floor as Aeris begins heading off towards a nearby tree.

"Are you sure lighting it inside a tree won't smoke ourselves out?"

"Positive." Aeris leads the way, standing at the split on the outside of the tree's bark, too wide for her to touch with either of her arms and taller than three times her height. She regards the barely-illuminated hollow centre, sparking a lighter from a jacket pocket and holding it up as she walks in. "They go fifty feet high, the smoke has a long way to travel."

"Inside it is."

The temperature immediately dropped as soon as the trio walk into the heart of the tree, the ground soft and slightly damp beneath their feet. Aeris holds her lighter high above her head, a warm orange glow cast up the innards of the tree before fizzling out into a cloaking darkness shrouding high above their heads. It was eerily silent, the sounds of nature outside muffled by the trees thick bark, and the air lay damp and cool against their skin.

After thoroughly checking that the inside of the tree was secure apart from the main entrance, the three quickly set up a camp fire in its centre, huddling close to the flames as the temperature continues to drop as night encroaches.

Aeris sits, cross-legged and arms wrapped around herself, on the side of the campfire furthest from the entrance with Obi-wan and Leia sat slightly to her left, the young girl happily chatting away.

The young girl had taken it upon herself to fill the silence that had settled, and had been rattling off about all the facts she knew about trees and nature for the near past hour. Aeris had considered going and finding her own tree to camp in, but the thought of standing and walking anywhere had her resolutely rooted in place, staring blankly into the fire and waiting for sleep to take her.

She could never have children.

"What are we going to do about food?" Leia finally pipes something useful, and Aeris' eyes slide slowly from the fire to Obi-wan as she waits to see how he would handle this.

"It's too late in the day to go hunting." He explains slowly, looking as tired as Aeris felt. "We'll have to go without tonight, but first thing tomorrow we'll find something to eat, and water."

Leia huffs, falling silent for once as she also stares into the fire. Her eyes suddenly flick to Aeris' bag.

"You didn't pack anything we could eat?"

Aeris takes a deep breath at the chlld's sass, completely missing Obi-wan's surprised little smirk.

"If I did I would have told you by now."

"Nothing at all?"

Aeris shuffles, her ribs beginning to ache, laying down onto her side and using her satchel as a pillow as she edges closer to the fire. "I packed two sachets of powder," she comments from the floor. "but we need water to make them edible. If you want to go and snort some dehydrated bread be my guest."

She probably shouldn't have said that, she doesn't even look to Obi-wan to gage his reaction.

"Snort? What does that mean?"

She tunes out Obi-wan's heavy sigh and attempt to steer the conversation somewhere else, letting the pair talk amongst themselves as she ponders silently. She doesn't rejoin the conversation, and is so utterly out of it that she doesn't even realise when the conversation dies out as Leia falls asleep against Obi-wan's shoulder.

She shuffles constantly, the bacta-patch cool and uncomfortable against her skin, and the aches and pains from being thrown around the hull of a crashing ship doing little to help. It would be a long and tiring night, and she really wished she would have just ignored her communicator and fallen back to sleep in the hull of her ship. She had learnt her lesson: not more charity for others.

She bolts upright upon hearing a snapping twig at the tree's entrance, heart jack-hammering in her chest as her eyes search for the source in the darkness. A little fluorescent lizard scuttles past, and she sighs at her own nerves.

"I thought you were asleep." Obi-wan's soft voice startles her again, and her head whips around just as quick in his direction.

"I'm keeping watch." She grunts, pulling herself into a cross-legged position.

"I think you should sleep. I'll keep watch."

Oh she really hated that tone he used when he knew he was right.

"I'm doing fine. I can't sleep anyway, the ground's too uncomfortable. Better one of us sleeps than neither of us."

"I'm keeping watch." He re-states, matter-of-factly. "You can join me if you want, but you shouldn't."

Silence envelopes the camp once again, with nothing but the popping of the campfire and the rustling of leave outside filling the empty air. It was dark, incredibly so, and the entrance to the tree resembles a cave entrance more than anything else. Aeris was incredibly glad there were no other fissures in the trunk, the wide gaping chasm setting her nerves on edge far greater than she cares to admit.

Her body longed for sleep, but she couldn't, not yet, not here, not while they were so vulnerable.

Instinctively, she reaches down to her thighs, pulling her two blasters out of their sheaths and resting them in her lap. She hadn't checked them since the crash, and she sighs when she feels twisted metal in her right hand.

The left blaster looked relatively unharmed, a couple dents in its handle but nothing else, but the right one practically fell apart as soon as she pulled it from her sheath. She grimaces as the nozzle falls away from the main body, holding both pieces in her hand and frowning at the exposed wiring. Twisting it in her grip, something falls lose and the handle breaks again. With a sigh and a curse she drops the three pieces off to her side, she only had one blaster left, with one shot left in its charge.

"Are they both broken?" Obi-wan's voice echoes again, this time not startling her as she had felt his eyes on her the entire time.

"Just one." She hums, sheathing the remaining blaster after thoroughly checking its nozzle. "I've got one shot left. Let's hope there's no-one else in this forest."

Silence, again. Why wasn't Obi-wan sleeping? If she knocked him out would he be angry at her when he woke up? Probably.

"How are you feeling?" Obi-wan seems to have surprised even himself with the question, eyes glinting in the firelight as he looks over at her.

Aeris diverts her gaze back to the fire, watching a log begin to collapse into itself. "Fine. Better. No need to hover like a mother."

Her attempted hostility doesn't dissuade the auburn-haired man; they had all night, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, it was the perfect opportunity to finally get some answers.

"Are you going to tell me how you got those bruises?"

Aeris bristles at the question, shoulders tightening slightly, invisible in the shadows that cloaked her. She continues staring into the fire.

"What do you mean? Did you not see the crash you dragged me out of?"

"You were already wearing medical tape, and the bruising was far too dark to have been caused by the landing. I'm not a fool."

"I have an intense job, the medical tape is for support. Don't tell me you've never wrapped to support old wounds before."

Obi-wan continues to stare, jaw clicking. Perhaps he should have just gone to bed if she was going to be so evasive. He needed a different approach.

"Okay, I believe you." That has her eyes snapping up from the fire towards him, brows furrowed lightly. "For arguments sake, let's pretend I believe that it was the landing that broke your ribs, and didn't just aggravate them." The breeze picks up outside, and the tree creaks loudly, a loud groan reverberating through the still air. "Where did the bruising come from, on your arms and face?"

"The same place the broken ribs came from."

Aeris doesn't miss a beat, and Obi-wan sighs in frustration.

"You are making it exceedingly difficult to trust you."

"You don't need to trust me, you just need to do what I say and stay alive until we get to the resistance on Mapuzo."

"I would have a much easier time following your orders if I trusted you. If you explained the boot prints covering your arms and back, if you told me whoever went after you won't come after me or my daughter."

"This coming from the man with Darth Vader on his tail." Aeris scoffs to herself. "You have no danger from being in my presence, but it seems that I am in the most dangerous spot in the galaxy stood by your side." Her voice takes a steely edge, tight and controlled. "I've saved your life, twice. I've already proven you can trust me. It is you who has attracted the attention of the Empire, and you insist on keeping me in the dark about why. I saw your face in the cargo hold, you know exactly why you're in this mess, why you need my help to get back into hiding. You don't need to trust me, and I don't need to trust you. We both have our reasons, and we can both agree we all need to remain alive, and doing as I tell you to is exactly how that is going to remain true."

Obi Wan didn't really have a response, so he instead doubles down. "So you can assure me whoever did that to you won't do the same to us?"

"Not unless you suddenly become a bounty hunter. Until then, I think your priorities should remain with the saber-wielding maniac calling for your head."

Silence, again. Obi-wan had come to enjoy silence over his many years in solitude, but the silence that seemed to always fill the empty space between him and Aeris was somehow unbearable. It made him anxious and distressed, his muscles tense and his palms sweating as he sensed Aeris' steady presence beside him. Perhaps it was because the silence between them was anything but empty, no, it screamed of mistrust and suspicion, with anger and disgust rolling from Aeris in waves, and he couldn't understand why.

The silence lasted a few more agonising minutes, Obi-wan picking a dead twig from the floor and using it to poke at the fire noncommittally. Aeris had taken to rummaging around in her bag again.

"I have one question, and I promise if you give me a proper answer, the real answer, I won't ask anything more about your past." Obi-wan awaits Aeris' response, her stilling hands and amber eyes flicking in his direction indicating she was listening. "Your ribs - where had you seen the force before? Used in such a way?"

He overturns a log in the simmering embers of the fire, auburn locks glowing in its dimming light. The silence between them had shifted again, and now Aeris sits, tongue heavy in her mouth as she tries to find the right words.

"I happened to be on a central planet when the Jedi Republic collapsed. When everything fell, they stopped all intergalactic transport so we couldn't get away. I saw a lot."

"We?"

"My family."

The terseness in her voice told him all he needed to know about their fate, and that she was telling the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

"You couldn't have been very old when it happened, what were you, eighteen?"

"Sixteen."

He glances up from the simmering flames to the brunette, her gaze locked onto the fire, nothing written upon her features except exhaustion. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know what had compelled him to say it, part of him hoping the sympathy would help prompt her into sharing more, and another, larger, part of him genuinely feeling somewhat responsible. The Jedi had been supposed to protect people like her, and instead they had failed, he had failed.

She couldn't bring herself to tell him he had no need to apologise, and she felt her chest tightening uncomfortably as she stared back at him through the dying flames, both surprised and unjustifiably furious. She zips her bag shut abruptly, quietly clearing her throat. "Well, if you're not going to sleep, I might as well. If you hear anything, wake me up."

Obi-wan sits silently as she once again lays down, eyes closed and pale face warmed by the soft glow of the fire. He sighs a deep breath, cerulean gaze turning to the fissure of the tree, his hands clasped in his lap as the silence settles.

He had a familiar feeling that he had said the wrong thing, again.

---

Before he knew it, Obi-wan was waking up to the sounds of bird-chatter and the rustling of leaves, the embers of the fire long-dead and an early-morning golden hue streaming in through the opening of the bark of the tree. He stirs for a moment, not remembering falling asleep, and rubs at his eyes, grunting at the more-prominent pain in his shoulder.

Leia, tucked tightly into his side with her dusty cream blanket wrapped over her shoulders, stirs at his movements, wide brown eyes blearily staring up at him, brows furrowed and lips tugging down at having been awoken so early. "...Ben?"

"Good morning, Leia." He mutters, standing and stretching his limbs, gaze travelling across their small camp. A little lizard sat nestled upon the charred log pile, and watched them with eyes as dark as the abyss. "We should get going before the sun peaks. Did you sleep well?"

Leia hums something unintelligible, Obi-wan nods in agreement.

He looks across at the still-sleeping figure of Aeris as Leia begins to shuffle her blanket together, complaining about being hungry.

He watches the brunette's sleeping form for a moment, wishing that by some miracle she would awaken without him having to do anything, but she looked truly out of it, not a single muscle in her body tense. Her arms had wound themselves tightly around her torso underneath her shirt throughout the night, and he could see the edge of the bacta-patch poking out from underneath her elbow.

Tentatively, he steps forward.

"Aeris?" Silence. He calls her name again, louder.

"Aeris, can you hear me?"

With no luck, and no sign the woman was even somewhat conscious, he reaches out a hand, slowly, gently, placing it against her shoulder.

"Aeris-"

She jolts as soon as his palm lands against her shoulder, and before he knows it there's the barrel of her remaining blaster aimed straight at his face as he tries to lurch back.

"It's me! It's just me, Obi-wan."

The blaster immediately lowers, Aeris' bloodshot eyes closing as she rests back against the damp floor, taking a deep breath.

"Don't do that." She groans, both palms coming up to press against her tired eyes.

"How else am I supposed to-"

"You're right, you're right." She waves a hand at him dismissively, and a frown tugs at his chapped lips. "You startled me. I- Sorry."

Before he could even register that she had just apologised to him, Aeris is standing from the floor and patting her legs down, yawning as she does.

Obi-wan watches on in surprise as she hauls her bag over her shoulders, still thoroughly shocked she had apologised so easily so early in the morning. Perhaps today would be a good day for them.

"You fucking snore, you know?"

Perhaps not.

"My apologies." He snarks, watching with crossed arms as she re-arranges her pockets. "Feeling better than yesterday, or am I to carry you again?"

"Oh, shove off." Her attitude had returned with break-neck speed, but Obi-wan was somewhat thankful. Temper meant energy, and energy meant she was recovering. She was doing remarkably well for someone who had just crash-landed in a cockpit not more than 12 hours ago, and without any of the force protection he and Leia had enjoyed.

Obi-wan continues to watch as she lifts her creased shirt, a hand tugging at the now-empty bacta-patch. With one swift tug she drops the sheet of plastic onto the floor, a hand exploratively running over the freshly-healed skin.

"That looks better." He comments, the skin still slightly mottled with discolouration, but now of yellows and greys far closer to her actual skin colour than the horrendous sangria that had engulfed half her torso before. The puncture wound higher up her ribcage was also now completely gone, only a small sliver of silvery skin left behind.

"Good as new." She comments, giving her side a light tap, and satisfied with the lack of pain that greeted her.

Leia takes that moment, without thinking, to hold her blanket out for the bounty hunter to take, arm out expectantly.

Aeris glances down at the young girl, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. Obi-wan nearly jumps in-between them to save the young girl from an untimely demise.

"What, I'm some pack-mule now that I can walk?"

"I- uh." Leia stutters, drawing the blanket back into her chest with the sudden dawning realisation that she was not at home, and that the adults around her weren't like the servants at home. In her tiredness she had forgotten where she was, and now gaped like a fish out of water as she tried to come up with an excuse to explain her behaviour.

"Manners." Aeris demands, arms crossed and hip popped out to the side. "What do you say?"

"I- uh," Leia glances between the adults. "can- can you please put my blanket in your bag? Please?"

Aeris' lips purse, but she reaches out to take the blanket nonetheless. "Better."

Obi-wan doesn't miss the side-eye she sends his way as she stuffs the blanket into her pack, and for some reason, he feels as though he should defend himself.

"I don't know what her mother is teaching her."

He follows Aeris out of the tree, raising his finger to his lips as Leia frowns at him for the comment. Getting the hint, she bites her tongue, but follows behind with a huff and a frown regardless.

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