Chapter 27 - Our Farewell

“Ash is in no condition to go anywhere,” Kiro said, sticking up for her.
“The boss doesn’t care if she lives or dies, preferably dies. Now you will come with us,” the leader said. Two more guards stepped up behind them and they all went up and pulled Kiro to his feet. Ash felt loved that he would lay with her until they came and got him themselves. Kiro just smiled. He elbowed one guard in the stomach and kicked the other in the shin, but before he knew it, he had a blaster pointed at his head.
“Nooo!” Ash screeched. Her voice was barely audible. She felt Kiro strength start to fade away from her and the wheezing started to come back. Kiro put his hands up slowly behind his head.
“Just…don’t hurt her,” he said.
“Oh, we will,” the guard behind him said. That made Kiro mad. Ash felt the anger inside him boil. But there was nothing he could do that wouldn’t get them both killed.
A guard came up behind them and grabbed Ash by the arm. He pulled her to her feet and she almost lost her breath. It was taking all her strength just to stand up.
With that, the guards holding Kiro turned around and started to shove him out of the room. Then the guard holding Ash pushed her forward. Her legs didn’t want to work but she forced them too.
Once they all got out of the room they separated Ash and Kiro. The one guard took Ash left and the other guards took Kiro right.
“ASH!” Kiro yelled. She heard him talking to the guards.
“You can’t separate us! She’ll die! She needs me!” he almost yelled, blaster still pointed at his head.
“Shut up!” a guard said and slapped him in the head with the blaster. His head slapped to the other side and he grunted. “We don’t care if she dies!”
As they moved them farther apart, Ash felt herself getting weaker and weaker, and once they turned the first corner, she couldn’t even walk anymore. She didn’t have any strength and she dropped to her knees.
“Get up!” the guard ordered her.
“I can’t…walk,” she wheezed. “My legs…don’t work.”
The guard muttered a curse and threw her up onto his shoulders. It almost knocked the wind out of her.
Ash’s new room was just as plain as the old one with the same bar wall. Two more guards where standing in front of that room. The guard carrying her opened the door and threw her into the room. She landed with a thud and rolled to her side. She could barely breathe. She clenched her stomach and grunted to herself. The guards didn’t care about her. She was alone. No one was there to help her and she was probably going to die this time.
Just then she heard kicking and screaming done the hall. She moved her head up a little bit to see what was going on.
“Let go of me you stupid, idiotic, kriffin fierfek of a nerf-herder!” someone yelled. Ash recognized that it was Zuri. Echo was right. She did have a temper.
The guard threw her in the room and she grunted when she landed. Ash couldn’t hold her head up any longer and she slumped it back to the ground. She moaned and that got Zuri’s attention. Ash was shaking know from a lack of oxygen.
“Ash!” Zuri yelled and came over to her side. She grabbed her by the shoulders and gently pulled her up against the nearest wall. Ash’s head was slumped to the side and her eyes and teeth were clenched. It felt like her lungs were going to explode. She hadn’t been prepared for the gas grenade and now it was taking it’s revenge on her.
“Ash?! What’s wrong?!” Zuri said, getting worried.
Just then, something locked inside of her. Her throat closed and she couldn’t breath. She opened her mouth and her eyes went wide. Nothing came out. Zuri must have sensed the change.
“ASH!” she yelled. She put a hand on her head and turned it to face her. Ash stared at the shocked look on Zuri’s face, not able to do anything but try to tell her what was going on. That didn’t help at all. If anything, it just made Zuri more confused.
Zuri freaked out. She didn’t know what to do.
“Help her!! She’s suffocating!” Zuri yelled at the guards.
“Shut up in there!” they yelled back.
Zuri got mad.
“Go jump into a sarlacc!” she yelled back and then turned her attention back to Ash. A tear came down Zuri’s eyes.
“Don’t die on me Ash. Echo would kill me. She loves you,” Zuri said.
Ash was glad she said that. It reminded her that she had people that loved her. She couldn’t die. Just like Kiro had said, she had to find a way to survive because she would. She took a shaking hand, and with all her strength grabbed onto Zuri’s shoulder. Zuri looked at the hand. She had no idea what Ash was doing, but Ash knew. She was drawing strength from Zuri’s force presence. Echo was right. She was strong in the Force, just not as strong as Kiro had been and it took a little more effort on Ash’s part to find the strength to survive.
But she eventually found. She focused in on it with her eyes closed, still not being able to breath. She was losing fast and dark edges started to creep up on the sides of her vision.
She found the strength and clenched down on it. Just then, her throat opened and she gasped for breath, letting go of Zuri’s arm.
“ASH!!? Zuri said, shaking. “I though I had lost you! What did you do?”
Zuri’s presence was very reassuring now. Zuri didn’t know it yet, but now she and Ash had a special bond and Ash was able to draw strength from that bond.
“Force-sensitive’s can…draw strength from…other…force-sensitive’s,” Ash coughed. “And you just…saved my life.”
Zuri hugged her.
“I couldn’t just let you die,” she said. Ash could hear her crying.
“Don’t…cry,” Ash said. “Be proud…of yourself. Even if I did die…you have to remember…just because you’re…a Jedi…doesn’t mean you…can save…everybody.”
“But I can try,” Zuri said. Ash smiled. She liked Zuri more and more. She was reminding her more of herself every time she said something.
Just then Echo connected back to her in the Force. She was barely able to keep the connection.
Ash? Are you okay?
Do you want me to give you the truth? Ash said.
Well, your annoying boyfriend is over here and won't shut up and I want to give him good news so...no.
Ash let out a sigh of relief. Kiro was okay.
Okay...well...there isn't that much good news. I'm a little better, but not much. They took me to another room and threw me in. They put Zuri in the room with me in place of Kiro. She isn't that much of help, but I'm trying to gain as much strength as I can from her.
Tell her that you need strength, and it may take her a little bit but she can help you. You have to tell her.
Echo...that won't help. I stopped breathing for a minute. I almost died. She can't help with that. I had to find the strength inside her myself. She wasn’t calm and it was really hard to concentrate. Trust me; she freaked out when that happened.
Like Kiro wouldn't have? Now tell her! NOW! You are going to die if you don't! Just listen to me for once…please. For your sake.
Ash sighed.
Okay I will. But I can’t talk any longer. I don’t have enough strength, She said and broke the connection.
“What was that about?” Zuri asked.
“Echo and I share…a twin bond,” she said wheezing. “We can communicate through it. She told me…to tell you that you…have to help me. I need strength…from you or I…will die. She has…faith in you Zuri.”
Zuri smiled.
“I look up to her. She keeps the faith even when there isn’t any.”
Ash smiled. But then the darkness started to creep up on her. She needed sleep. She needed to heal, but she didn’t have enough strength to do that, even with Zuri’s help.
“Zuri…I need to sleep. If you see or…feel me stop breathing, you have…to wake me up. I don’t care how. But if you…don’t wake me up, I could die,” she said in her most serious tone she could make.
“Don’t worry,” Zuri said. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Ash smiled and Zuri helped her lay down on the floor. Zuri sat next to her just in case. Ash closed her eyes and tried to sleep but still stay in control of her body.
It wasn’t long until she felt her heart rate speed up. But it wasn’t because of her body. Something was happening to Echo. Maybe not her personally, but something around her was upsetting her. It made it hard for Ash to sleep.
Then Ash felt something, or like she didn’t feel something..
Xiang.

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