Chapter Text
Chapter 34
And What of Leon Bos?
“This isn’t working!”
You heard Bastion say as you swayed back and forth once again hung up. The words were distorted after the beating. You were already fading in and out of consciousness. Bastion believed you were already out cold. The unnatural feeling of your face swelling twice its size was ever prominent when you almost smiled, hearing a comment that the damage you’d done to his face was preventing him from being inconspicuous back at the base. People kept asking him questions over the past few days of where he’d been, what had happened to his face.
It came as a surprise to learn that Bastion wasn’t able to keep his stories straight. He warned the others that his stories were getting muddled and they replied that this had to move along faster.
“If we hurt her more than we already are, she’ll die.” A woman, who wasn’t happy at all, stated angrily. It wasn’t Jessika.
Had you been here longer than a few days? They had started to give you food and water, you remembered. Not much, but enough to keep you alive. You had thought about letting yourself starve, but that was what you had done before wasn’t it? No, you’d try to save up your strength this time.
“Why doesn’t he come?” Someone else asked, his voice like gravel.
“I don’t know!” Bastion yelled back in disgust. “This is all a fucking mess.”
“It needs to get messier if you want to call Ren here.”
They were amateurs.
For which you were very grateful.
Zorok had been neat, and proper, and very precise. He knew what hurt the most, and what disturbed the most. These fellows, on the other hand, lacked his finesse and took to brute force. That’s not to say the blows were weak. They were hard hits, the first few times they had used just their fists and kicks, the other days they used…what was it? Sticks? For how long, you couldn’t remember…Today they used whips or something thinner. But you didn’t cry. Or perhaps you did, but you didn’t cry out loud. Maybe your eyes watered, or a tear managed to run, but your lips were silent as the grave. Your shirt was damp, and sticky, but for the hundredth time, you reminded yourself this was nothing, failing to realize, your palms had started to bleed due to your clenching fists. You had to have an outlet somewhere.
“And what about her damn bodyguard?”
“They had a falling out before she left.”
“That man was a pain…”
So it was a rush job. It wasn’t a coincidence that Bastion had come up to you that night, he had waited until you were away from Bos. You two had been, for a short while, almost inseparable. He realized that that chance would have been the only one he’d get.
The conversation went on to the next step, what they could use to push your limits, but they, despite their rugged looks and their tough act, were resistance and they were young.
They weren’t holding back, it was their limit! They just didn’t know how to proceed and break the ceiling. Hopefully, they wouldn’t learn how to in the near future.
You remembered that Ziff had mentioned that he’d done things for the cause, but he was out in the field all hours of the day and you had seen when he was brutal, and when he was cold and unfeeling, especially when it came to protecting you from…someone…a butt? Your mind remained clouded and your thoughts were diluted. For hours you’d stayed like this, until you were quickly dropped. This caught you off guard and you did cry out as your open wounded back touched the ground roughly.
“I’m sorry!” A girl’s voice. “I’m sorry.”
Jessika’s voice.
Unfocused vision finally sharpened and you looked around behind her as you automatically backed away, only able to calm yourself when you found the both of you quite alone. You groaned as the cuts on your back started to stretch and she put a ‘comforting’ hand to steady you.
You were confused and your eyes never stopped showing your hatred for her, but when you saw what she had brought with her, a small basin of water a cloth and long strips of bandages, medical supplies, they softened and you stopped struggling.
The first time she saw your back you heard her gasp in horror. You didn’t react, but the sound of her voice made your worry that something worse than the cuts had revealed itself. You didn’t feel like anything on your back was broken. Your ribs, fine, but your back? Your spine?
She started to cry, and you almost lost it, but you felt a hand travel along somewhere where there wasn’t a fresh wound. She was looking at the older ones and her silence unnerved you.
“They’re horrible, I know.” You said callously.
“No.” The girl shook her head, “I mean, yes-I mean…” She cried on and on as she started to wipe away the blood. “They look the same!”
The same? As much as you’d preferred not to talk to her, you were curious what she meant but whatever reason she had it was so distressing to her that she couldn’t get out the words to explain herself. Among her supplies, while she went on feeling sorry for her own condition, you noticed something gleam. It was a needle about the size of you palm, just there, lying short distance from the basin and suturing thread.
Your fingers made slow twitching motion, but that was as far as they went. A few minutes later, you were ready to try again, but Jessika was already finishing up with the cleaning process. Should you wait for her to use the needle and snatch it after? No, she’d be sure that she had it while she was with you.
Distract her!
“Why are you doing this?” Your fingers drummed once. “They’re just going to rip open again.”
You felt her hands stop, and then start up again.
You eyed the needle and your heart pounded louder. It was a marvel she didn’t feel it when she dabbed at the blood. You were terrible at this skulking approach. Slow and patient, you tried to convince yourself, but the string in your mind was already so taunt, it snapped and you went on the bitter and offensive path.
“Well?” You sharply turned to face her and as she backed away meekly and fearfully (she raised a blaster that was hidden on her person to your head), your hand took the opportunity to ‘adjust’ to your weight and glide over the desired possession. “Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t know!” She went back and forth with her justifications, then how Bastion is going to far, then back again with how it was necessary. Somewhere in the back of your mind she reminded you of someone, but you brushed the thought aside.
In the end, she forgot about the needle and when she noticed it missing, it was quickly assumed that she had forgotten it and settled for bandaging you up rather poorly, showing how little she knew about wound care. You didn’t bother to point it out, you only hoped the needle you stole would be strong enough. But what then? Even if you got free, how would you open the door?
“How long have I been here?” You asked.
She was surprised you started to talk and answered nine days.
More than a week!
People had assumed you had deserted. The General had made inquiries and didn’t believe it, but all they found from your quarters was a hastily rummaged room and signs of your leaving. She was obliged to think you had run off. The little girl and the mother had denied it and thought it slander, but whom could they turn to? Who would believe them? And even if it was true you were missing, there was a war going on. What was one more missing soldier?
And what of Leon Bos?
The man, had disappeared on a mission for several days off planet, and when he came back, there was no change in his routine. He had gone on with his life just as everyone else. Here and there he received contracts, and small scavenger excursions, but nothing suggested he knew or even cared.
The next ‘torture’ sessions became shorter. Or perhaps your mind was more preoccupied than it had been for a while. This time you studied faces in quick glances; you paid attention to who was there, picked up on their schedules that were mentioned in between the blows.
For the most part, they all tried to be on the base as much as possible. Every so often, two would go get supplies like food. And then the times that Bastion would be gone. That would leave the base with a minimum of six on base if timed properly. Three to four people were always posted on each side of the building, leaving three or four inside at all times.
You just needed the right timing.
And a way to get out of the stupid cuffs.
All your time went to sleeping and messing with the stupid chains. You didn’t pretend to know what you were doing, you just fiddled. After the sessions and in between your dreams, you started laughing at yourself how you’d started to see locks and picks in your sleep. But despite your best efforts, your more enthused rattlings, the chains around your wrist remained locked.
After one session, you’d been exceptionally tired. You pretended to be unconscious, fighting the urge to wince when they tested if you were faking. They had bought it, and you were left alone.
Your hands were shaking as you forced one open and tried again to put it in the keyhole and you went to work.
A few hours you still hadn’t given up, per se, but you were already falling asleep. Your eyes didn’t even bother to stay open and the pick you were using was doing nothing more now than poking at the keyhole. It was the last thing you remembered before dozing off.
There was a ‘click’ and you shrieked.
“OW!” You rubbed the part of your face that hurt the most. “Jessika!”
You slowly stood up and looked to face her, but she wasn’t in the room. Looking down to your wrists, you realized that you’d done it! You picked the lock! You rubbed your wrists and looked up at the shackles.
How the hell did that happen? And what the hell do you do now? You walked around freely, but the moment was short lived as you heard someone at the door.
Oh shit!
You weren’t on the ground, you’d been hanging! You looked at the distance and realized jumping to climb back into your restraints would have been stupid. What to do? Rush them? Play dead?
Too late!
The door opened and someone stepped inside. It was the other female member you saw. Under her helmet, her head angled to your hands and then to the ceiling. She grasped something at her side and flicked the weapon open and it crackled to life. A charged baton.
Ooh, you weren’t prepared for this.
The woman marched towards you and raised her weapon, You raised your fists in a pathetic attempt to feel strong but something went wrong and her body stiffened, going limp after a few seconds as she fell to the floor.
Behind the passed out body, you saw a terrified looking Jessika standing with her arm stretched out. At the end of it, judging by the light, a blaster set to stun. She dropped the blaster and began to shake.
“Oh my-”
“Shut the door!” You hissed and she did so, unsure with every step.
Your brain was scrambling for ideas and you tried to calm her down.
“What did I do?!”
“Shhh!” You patted her quickly. “We have to get out of here.”
You looked at the limp body on the floor and to the door.
“How many of them are outside?”
“Um…ah, one.”
“That’s good.” You started to strip the woman of her black clothes and armor.
“What are you doing!” Jessika tried to stop you, but you shoved her away and put on the helmet.
“Help me!”
Jessika started to tug at the woman’s boots as you were putting on her other clothes. Every move was difficult, but you forced yourself passed the pain.
“There’s only one?”
“Yes but it’s not a good thing. I don’t know where the others are.”
You tried to put on the armor, but it was too stifling in your damaged condition and you couldn’t breath with it on. If you couldn’t wear the armor, you’d have to worry about the blood soaking the black clothes too quickly. In the end, you couldn’t handle it. Even the helmet was a burden, but Jessika encouraged you to keep that on. The exit wasn’t too far and you would be able to breath slowly until then.
“What about transportation?” You asked Jessika. “Is there any outside?”
“Um- there’s a transport outside, the one we came in and a speeder. We can pretend we’re headed back for…I don’t know.”
“We’ll wing it. Get to the base, report to Organa.” You groaned and almost stumbled. “Jess, you’ll have to do the talking if things start heading south.”
“Yeah.” She made a gesture to steady you, but you’d have to stand your own and shooed her hand away.
“Let’s go before she wakes up.” You both headed towards the door, and took a deep breath. Jessika was calmer now, but you knew she was still on edge. You nodded to her and you both exited the room silently.
You’d just exited.
You didn’t even make it five feet when you saw a tall silhouette appear around the corner down the hall. You felt your courage failing, but Jessika nudged your arm and pushed you to the right to lead the way opposite of the threat and to, what you assumed, the path of the location.
The two of you stayed silent, and the third member never addressed you. You just had to round the opposite side, and you’d be out of his sight, but Jessika halted suddenly and shouted out.
“What are you doing!”
When you turned around, your stomach flipped realizing that the man was at your cell.
“None of your business.”
Your flesh began to crawl.
“Bastion said-” Jessika was running towards the man now. If only you could keep up. “His orders are to leave her unharmed while she sleeps! Don’t go in there!”
“I’m not going to hurt her. I just like to watch her sleep.” The man responded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
You wanted to vomit. Had he snuck in and watched you before this? His words implied he did this regularly. You tried not to think too much of what might have or could have happened and tried to help Jessika intervene, but she had reached him first.
“DO NOT OPEN THAT DOOR!” She screamed in desperation, but he shoved her roughly aside and the door opened to reveal the scene you’d hoped wouldn’t be discovered so soon. A partially clothed member of their squad lying unconscious on the ground. She didn’t share the same skin tone as you or the same hair style, much less the same color.
“What the hell?” He turned to you both for answers, but by the time he did this, Jessika pulled out her blaster, and pulled the trigger.
The man screamed and you saw him kneel down, but that was where he stopped. With extraordinary determination, he gripped Jessika’s weapon and arm, and threw her across back into the room you’d both just left and didn’t move again.
You swore and tackled the man, but off your feet, he had the advantage, and was much taller than you. If you were lower, you’d aim lower. You started to kick him between the legs, and it worked for a while, until he grabbed you by the shoulders with two hands and pulled you close. You didn’t expect him to bite your neck and you let out a strangled cry through gritted teeth. He was like an animal with lockjaw. You tried to gouge at his eyes but he grabbed your arms to hold them down.
Kick!
KICK!!!
You didn’t have time to. A jolt of electricity ran through your body. Your attacker got the worst of it, and it was enough surprise to release you. Jessika had picked up her blaster and was currently laying shots into the man until he was on the floor, and continued to do so even after he stopped moving.
When her rage subsided you both looked at each other, with ‘holy shit’ grins, feeling incredibly empowered. She held out her hand, and you didn’t bother to catch your breath as you took it heartily.
Ah, camaraderie.
You felt her balance her weight out to pull you up, but the tug never came. She fell down the opposite way as a small beam of red light pierced her upper body and she lay on the ground gasping.
“JESS!!!”
You turned to the door and felt a searing pain shoot into the leg and you were down. Another blast of energy hit your head, and if it weren’t for the helmet you’d be dead. The whiplash was hell, though, and the beam had damaged the armor piece shattering more than half the face visor. It was as if you were hit by a ton of bricks to the face and they were lying on top of you. You tried to get back up, your mind screamed to get back up, but you found that you couldn’t move.
You closed your eyes and tried to move, but the best you could do was roll on your side. You didn’t even manage a crawl when Bastion stepped on the leg he had just shot.
You screamed and saw the man smile.
“I’ve been waiting to hear you scream like that.” He lifted his leg up briefly and then pushed down again and you groaned. “Not like that, do it like before!”
When you didn’t, he dropped all his weight onto your leg. This time you were ready and you held in the cry. It infuriated him and he started to beat you. You raised your hands trying to block, but his attacks were brutal and eventually you stopped trying to defend and tried to attack…poorly.
“WHY!” Bastion grabbed you by the front of your shirt and shouted in your face after you were too exhausted to fight back. “WHY DON’T YOU JUST BREAK!”
You made a grimace, trying to catch your breath. Bastion read it as a mockery to himself and took his revenge by kicking you across the floor screaming how you were nothing. How you were and worthless. How no one cared that you’d been missing all this time and that not even Ren was coming for you. He was at his wit’s end. Everyone was. If you were no good to the alive, then they’d see how it’d work if you were dead.
He waited for your response and the room was quiet.
Until you started to laugh.
The sound unnerved him.
His hair stood up on end, and you heard him take a few steps back unless you had a few tricks up your sleeve.
Your laughter was even foreign to yourself as you started to laugh maniacally.
“I have NOTHING to lose!” You shouted in between the deafening laughter. “You wanted to BREAK me? You idiot!...I WAS TORTURED BY CAL-ZOROK!!! THIS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT HE PUT ME THROUGH. And this?” You ridiculed Bastion as he pulled out his own blaster. “This is child’s play. Resistance soldiers playing bad.”
“Then you can die and rot here, knowing that no one cares for you.” He aimed it at your head threatening to pull the trigger as you pulled yourself to your feet.
“You think that this matters?” You shrieked like a mad woman. You were so tired, so exhausted you didn’t give a damn anymore, you’d die singing his failure. “If someone comes to save me from this shithole? You think I’ll fall over and cry because Ren isn’t here? I’ve had worse. I’ve survived worse.” The truth hurt, but you pretended that the tears rolling down were because of laughing too hard and you smiled through it, knowing you were okay. The look on Bastion’s face was worth the trouble. “So try your fucking best and pull the damn trigger…because Kylo Ren is NOT coming.”
Bastion was shaking now, understanding that there was no win for him. He hadn’t been able to make you suffer, he hadn’t been able to tear you down. It didn’t matter if he killed you, there was no guarantee that Ren was even channeling in on your pain or that he’d even come after you were dead. The plan was poorly conceived and though he’d love to kill you, it its own way, it was worse than keeping you alive. Even a making a deal with the First Order was risky, assuming they still wanted your head. They always received the upper hand and would no doubt kill him and his team after an exchange was made. There was no merit for Bastion, just catastrophe.
Trembling with so much rage, his face had begun to turn purple. The man looked as if he was going to pop, but the room began to shake.
You both looked up, and another shake of the area occurred, knocking you down. The lights of the base started to flash red and Bastion reached his comm-link that latched on his upper shirt on the right.
“What the hell going on out there!” Static was the only response. He shouted a name through the comm but you couldn’t understand it. “Get your damn explosives under control!”
He tried a few more times to get someone to respond, but no one would answer. While Bastion was growing anxious again, you looked at Jessika on the ground and tried to see if she was still breathing from where you were.
Bastion’s irritation was growing, and rationalization was slipping away, while the situation remained critical. He couldn’t get an update on what was happening outside and was unsure whether or not to leave you. He swore and slammed the thing to the ground and turned to head towards the door, deciding to deal with you later, when a tired worn out silhouette appeared at the door, the man’s eyes were wide and red, you saw that his abdomen was covered blood and a decent sized hole.
“He’s…” The terrified man kept a hand against his wound and you saw the sweat from Bastion drop heavily. “He’s here-”
You didn’t even have time to think what that meant when a gloved hand shot out from behind your point of view from the dark, on the other side of the wall and grabbed his throat. Bastion wasted no time in rushing back to you to use you as a shield and place the blaster at your temple while you were still in a stupor.
The daze was shortlived and you snapped back to attention when the man started to give off a garbled scream as he was lifted into the air by sheer strength and a sickening crack was heard as his body went limp and crumpled to the floor.
You pissed yourself.
The smell of urine permeated the air. But the sensation was off, you were dry. Sweaty, and bloody, but the area around your crotch was quite dry. Your mind had enough sense to tell you that it wasn’t you who was soiled, but Bastion. He was just as afraid and it hit you, just how insane this plan was, just how inadequate these men were. What…what had he done? He led a dangerous man to where you were, and you were now both caged with the most mentally unstable, irrational human being with force awareness and fucking telekinesis. And someone who could break someone’s neck with one hand!! WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT!
There was too many variables. You didn’t know how he’d react if he saw you! Oh fuck. You were going to die. Ren was going to kill you. You’d prepared yourself for death, but this would… Your breathing wheezed and your mouth dried up. You didn’t move, you didn’t speak, you didn’t dare take a deep breath. You tried not to make a sound but your damn heart was pumping so hard it hurt and threatened to burst. And just when you thought the pressure would shatter you, the man you’d been waiting for stepped out from the dark to reveal a familiar mask.
And a ridiculous voice modulator with blue lights.
The man aimed his own blaster at Bastion and he began to advance slowly towards you.
You didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved, but in the end your eyes teared up and relief won over your tired body.
He wasn’t what you wanted, but what you needed.
“B-Bos!” You leaned forward but Bastion pulled you back.
“What…the fuck!” Bastion screamed and pushed the barrel into your temple where a nasty bruise had planted itself. “How the hell did you get here!”
“Let her go.” Bos took another step.
“Do I look like I’m in a disadvantage!?” Bastion aimed the blaster at Bos in hopes of him backing away, but it didn’t. “STAY WHERE YOU ARE OR I SWEAR I’LL KILL HER LIKE I DID HER FRIEND!”
You eyes fluttered to Jessika who was extremely pale, but not dead. You could see slight movements on her fingers, or a twitch near her eye. She wasn’t dead, but if you didn’t get her help soon she would be…you eyed Bastion’s weapon.
“Do you realize that the moment she hits the ground dead, I’ll have no reason to keep you alive?” Bos’s voice was calm. “She’s the only reason you’re still breathing.”
“BACK OFF!” Bastion was erratic now and shot his blaster to the ceiling, making you wince, before aiming it again at Bos. “I said BACK THE FUCK-”
You were staring at Bos’s hand, and then all of a sudden…
It was gone!
It exploded!
Bos had shot Bastion’s hand and at such a close range, it flew into pieces!
Thank the stars your mouth was fucking closed!
Bastion cried out and cradled his deformity, letting you go in the process. To which you responded by bolting towards Jessika’s body.
“Jess!” You tried to wake her gently, “Jess, come on we’re saved, we can go.”
The girl’s eyes slowly opened but barely.
“We’re gonna get you patched up.”
Bos said something but you ignored him. His tone wasn’t positive.
“But I need you to stay with me okay?”
Her lips moved and you delicately asked her to repeat it.
“I…wanted to be…better. I’m sorry…”
Bos was trying to tell you she wasn’t going to make it, but again you ignored him.
“You are! You are better! We’re better. Let’s get out of here okay? Just like we planned.” You repositioned her, but you only got as far as pulling her an inch before you had to drop and cradle her. “Come on. One more time.”
“You’re so brave…I couldn’t even…nothing…”
“Jess! You’re not nothing! You’re not! You’re-you’re-” you tried to regain her consciousness, but she remained unresponsive and her body drooped, “…extraordinary.”
You suppressed a frustrated cry into your hands, and you wanted to shake her awake, but you knew it wouldn’t do any good. For a moment you spare a bit of sadness, but when your eyes fell upon a discarded baton, hate filled your heart and you grabbed it without hesitation and focused all your anger into beating the shit out of Bastion.
You rose to your feet with a doubtful tremble at your knees and started to limp towards a cowering Bastion in the corner as he tried to salvage his hand…wrist…nub. And as you thought of Jessika’s pain and death, and the stupid things you suffered all for a man’s revenge, your limp broke out into a mad dash, and claimed a strike across the face that would turn a lovely purple green. But something had cracked as well. And when you turned on the baton’s current Bastion sang you a symphony of pain, which was more than you ever gave him.
You beat him like the piece of shit he was, and ignored your own pain as it started to alleviate from the high you got when you heard a bone break. As you let the madness take control of you temporarily, Bos, as if he was patience himself, waited until you exhausted yourself.
He didn’t try to stop you. He didn’t try to tell you how you were justified, or if you were wrong. He was just…there. There when you needed him the most. And when you finally collapsed, shortly after Bastion had passed out, though you gave in a few more blows just for good measure, only then did Bos come up to you and lay a pistol by your side, telling you it was your choice if you let the thing live or die. He wouldn’t stand in your way.
You wanted to pull the trigger.
And if Bos had given you the blaster in the beginning of your rampage, you certainly would have used it.
But, no.
You didn’t know how deep Bastion had altered the records at the base. You didn’t know who else was a dirty mercenary. Who else had he told about the Resistance base? You’d kill him after.
Bos may not have killed Bastion, but he did take the time to kill everyone else. When though, the hell did you know. The man at the door and the woman whose armor you had stolen, their necks had been snapped in their sleep.
You’d have to remember that the next time you made him angry.
“We need-” Your voice cracked, trying to explain you needed to take Bos.
“I know.” Bos knelt down beside you and put your arm around his neck while his arms came underneath and supported you to gently carry you out. “First, you.”
You groaned when he took a misstep but he quickly corrected his gait.
“You came for me?”
Bos grunted.
“Even after…I…” You rested your head on his chest. The armor was cool on your face and you didn’t realize how swollen it must have been until you felt the contrast of your hot face against the steel. “Bos?”
“Hm?”
You could see light coming from the exit where it showed you a clear sky that was fading into night. You wanted to tell him you were sorry and how it was all your fault. You wanted to cry for the girl who was your mirror image without Ziff or Matt or Ren…or Bos. How you missed him. You missed him so much he could read statistics, or even have him berate you for being stupid. You’d still just want to be near him. Maybe he would yell at you later, hell, you didn’t care. You were perfectly content where you were, at the moment, and you closed your eyes to focus on his heartbeat.
“Thanks for finding me, Leon.”
His pace was steady, and there was no notion that gave away if he was happy or irritated with you, but he was here. And after a short silence, his only response was entirely unselfish, without judgment against you. Nor was it condescending.
Just an apology.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”