Work Text:
Iden laid in the snow, staring up at the night sky. The world around her seemed quiet, almost peaceful. She felt the cold snowflakes melt on her face. The scene around her was almost perfect, if it wasn’t for the searing pain that was in her gut. I could just die here, she thought. I could just give up, and die right here and maybe everything would be ok. She heard her comm beep. Reaching for it on her belt, she realized it was no longer attached to her. Groaning in pain, she forced herself to sit up and look for it. Around her were several slain stormtroopers, the white snow stained with red. She wasn’t sure what was hers or what was the Empires. To her left, she spotted the beeping comm. With a hand pressing on her stomach, she leaned over and reached for it. Her stomach seemed to scream at her in protest. Laying back down, she took a deep breath and answered with the most normal voice she could muster. “…yeah?” It wasn’t normal. Her voice sounded hoarse and weak.
“Iden?” It was Shriv with concern in his voice. “Where are you? You’re not at the rendezvous spot. Did something happen?”
“Uh” she began. She brought up the hand that was on her stomach, it was covered in sticky warm blood. “I think I’m fine?” she said weakly. Her fathers voice rang in her head. Versios aren’t weak.
“Iden.” Shriv said with some urgency in his voice, “You're either fine or you’re not—and you don’t sound fine—Where are you? We will come and get you.”
“I’m…” She thought about telling Shriv not to worry. That she would meet up. Then she remembered she could barely sit up. “…at the back of the building.”
“Are you injured?”
Her fathers voice once again went through her head. Versios don’t get hurt. She ignored it. “Yes?” Iden wasn’t exactly sure. She assumed she was, but she didn’t exactly remembered what happened. There was lot of gunfire and a bunch of dead stormtroopers.
“We’re coming for you.”
Iden knew logically that meant Shriv and the Corvus. But all she could think of was where was the droid? It started the mission with her, but where was he now? Would Del be upset if she lost the droid? Iden figured he would, he did spent a lot of his free time fixing and upgrading it… She looked over to the right, and saw the black droid covered in snow. Was it broken like she was? No. She was a Versio and Versios don’t break. Versios are strong.
“Droid.” she called out.
Nothing.
“Droid,” she tried again, a little louder.
Still nothing.
She looked back up at the night sky. The clouds seemed to light up with the reflection of the snow. If she were to die here, she was glad it would be somewhere peaceful. No, she wasn’t going to die. Shriv and Del are coming. She felt awful. Her stomach burned in red hot pain. She wasn’t even sure how bad it was, she was afraid to look. Not that you could see much with her thick coat on. She heard the faint, crunchy steps in the snow of someone coming. Either it was a stormtrooper coming to finish her off or it was Shriv. Honestly, at this point, she didn’t care. Looking over, she saw the familiar outline of the Duros, she heard him call out for her. His voice dripping in concern.
“Here,” she said pathetically.
When he reached her he dropped to his knees, taking in the wound that was her stomach. “Karabast.” he whispered underneath his breath. Immediately he reached for his comm. “Uh Del? Bring the Corvus around back. Quickly please.”
Iden heard Dels concerned voice, “What’s wrong Shriv?”
“Idens shot. Please. Hurry.”
The worried Duros placed both hands on her stomach, adding pressure to the wound. Iden laughed meekly, “You’re going to worry Del, you’ve made it sound like its bad.”
“It is bad Iden, you’re bleeding out in a snowbank. That’s something to worry about.”
She heard the sound of the Corvus landing near by. Shriv looked her in the eyes and said very seriously. “I need to tell you two things. One, if you die on me, I will kill you. Don’t try me, I won’t hesitate.” Iden laughed weakly, “Two, I need to pick you up to bring you on the ship and you’re going to really hate it.”
Iden stopped him before he could grab her, “I am going to hate it even more if you leave behind my droid.” She said, gesturing to her right. Annoyed, Shriv got up, and grabbed the droid before returning to Iden.
“I got the damn droid. Can I save you now?”
“Permission granted.”
The last thing Iden remembered was the white hot pain in her middle when Shriv picked her up.
***
When Iden awoke, the first thing she notice was she felt warm—which was a change from laying in the cold snowbank. Her memory of the recent events suddenly came flooding back to her. An ‘easy’ milk run. More stormtroopers were on shift than what was planned for. She observed her surroundings before she opened her eyes. She was in a bed, there was bandages on her stomach. She was most likely in the med-bay.
After a while she finally opened her eyes and blinked away the bleary vision. She looked over at the sleeping heap of a man beside her. Head in his arms, resting on her bed, was Del. Iden smiled. She didn’t know how long she had been asleep, but she assumed Del had been here the whole time. She reached her hand over and ran her hand gently through his soft brown hair. Del stirred, and woke up. She could tell he had been fast asleep, as he could barely open his eyes, but yet he was awake enough to know that Iden was ok. His hair was sticking up on one side, which made her smile. He smiled when she brought her hand down to his face and stroked his cheek with her thumb.
“Hey.” She said quietly.
Sighing, he took her small hand in his and kissed her palm, “You nearly died, Iden.”
She felt a smile playing on her lips. “Well, you can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”