Lily Rhodes
Unseen
Lily had told herself once, when she’d clawed her way out of the undercity and stowed away on a transport ship, that she would never return to Coruscant, that she would never set foot on a planet that had been nothing but unkind to her. But she was here. She was here because she let her feet carry her, she let the force lead her.
She stared up at a sky filled with ash and smoke, the dark clouds of the force storm that had ripped across its surface still lingering, something heavy on her chest. Lily had been trying to help, overwhelmed by the noise, her defences torn open by the same device that she’d seen on Echnos when the Alliance had attacked. Bile rose, burning on its way up and she heaved the piece of rubble from her chest, rolling to her hand and knees and vomiting.
She pushed herself upright, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and looked around. The building that she’d grown up around was gone, split by a lighting strike and torn asunder by the cyclones. Sound returned slowly slowly to her, soft cries and shouts of pain. People were moving among the wreckage, injured limping their way to safety, others scrambling to move rubble and help.
The noise was still there, loud in her mind, a thousand voices overlapping, making it impossible to find her own thoughts.
Is it over?
Help
Where’s my sister?
Please help me.
I can’t feel my legs.
I'm going to die.Please let it be over.
I can't breathe.
I need to help these people.
There's so much blood.
Everything hurts.
Somebody help me.
The orphanage is gone.
How could they.
I don’t want to die.
Lily groaned, fingers sliding through silver hair layered with dust and blood, digging her fingers into her scalp and trying to close them out, despair rising in her chest when all they did was get louder. She was an exposed nerve.
Pushing herself to her feet, she began to walk. No direction in mind, just away, away from the death and the fear and the crying of souls she couldn’t save. She should have stayed away. Why couldn’t she stay away? She focused, one foot in front of the other, her hand caught a wall, or what was left of one, using it as guidance to keep her steady. Something soft shifted under her boot and her stomach twisted. She didn't look down, too afraid of what she might see. She lifted her foot, taking a longer stride and began picking her way out of the rubble.
Acier Moonbound