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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1873910" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 63: Left Behind“She’s dead.”    The words were short, simple, and straight to the point. This marked the second occasion Akan had spoken those words. If Shadow had heard him the first time he’d spoken that, she’d worry. When he had been the one to tell Rulae and Marin, the only two other Zephyrs that survived the Coruscant assault, that Mare was dead, there had been an eerie lack of anything in his voice. He’d just said them, with no emotion beyond a wide empty nothing behind them. But this time...this time he remembered.     In seeing Shira’s body lying there in the sand among the wreckage of the speeder, there was something that had never been possible with Mare. Here, he saw a body. He could see the burns and the bruises and the cuts. With Mare, it had been easy without having to see that. But now...now this brought back long past thoughts. Things he’d sworn he’d gotten over, but had really only buried beneath another life. Here, in Shira, he’d let Mare down again. In this girl he’d never truly known, he’d failed a second time. If he’d just left with Shadow, or even been flying the thing instead of worrying about wounds he could do nothing about, she’d still be alive.    “We have to go,” Shadow said in a voice that showed she didn’t completely know what to do. Akan was kneeling down and hand a hand over Shira’s neck, wishing for a pulse but knowing that nothing could be done. There would be no miracle. No saving grace like he had recieved. For the first time, Akan wondered if he even deserved it.    Carefully, Shadow put a hand on his shoulder, “We can’t take her with us.”    Akan managed a nod, barely able to fight back the tears attempting to escape, “I know.”    When he didn’t move, Shadow pulled him to his feet slowly. Akan was acting strange, and his thoughts were well shielded from her. Whether that was on purpose or not, she couldn’t tell. Either way, she didn’t know how to deal with this other than to get out and leave time to grieve for when they could be sure it was safe to stop. Now was not that time. Though the turbolaser had only fired twice, it was likely that there would be a group sent out to make sure the three of them were dead. These Narani were not stupid. Shadow knew though, that the second they only found one body, they would scour the area. The farther she and Akan were, the better.    With Akan on his feet, Shadow started moving off to the left, not the direction they had been going. Hopefully they weren’t leaving too many easy to follow tracks...she was almost dragging Akan for the first short leg, though when she’d picked up the pace to more of a slow run, he had no problem keeping up. Good. They couldn’t bring Shira’s body because it was dead weight, and this was no time for Akan to take on those qualities. As they passed by a series of large rocks, Shadow noticed that Akan had stopped. Great.    “C’mon,” she growled, not sounding so threatening with her higher pitched human voice.    He didn’t seem to take notice, turning and looking back. Very quietly, Shadow heard him say, “We can’t just leave her body like that...”    That was it. Something in Shadow just...snapped. When a strong arm grabbed Akan and spun him around, he found himself looking at an Alraxian Shadow again. She was glaring, looking very angry, and said dangerously, “Do you want to end up like that? Because I don’t,” a claw extended, poking him roughly in the chest, “And because I don’t want to end up like that, you aren’t allowed to.”    Akan simply looked at her in the same depressed expression that had seemed to overcome him, “I could carry her body.”    As he said this, he turned and started to attempt walking back towards the wreckage that was now shining gently off near the horizon in the moonlight. This time, Shadow’s claws dug into his shoulder when she roughly pulled him back, “No, Akan! There is nothing we can do.”    “Yes there is!” he yelled at her sounding like a child who was losing an argument. In this case, that wasn’t all that far from the truth.    “Fine, then!” Shadow threw him to the ground, her tail swishing against the sand in annoyance, “Go back and get us killed.”    Then, she spun around and stormed off. Akan watched her for a long time before finally getting to his feet. Shadow didn’t seem to know how to be anything more than an emotionless killer. He looked over his shoulder back to the landspeeder wreck. His eyes traced over the horizon as he found himself seeing the past. Simple flashes of times long gone. Why did they have to end? And even if they did have to end...why like that? Why like this? There was something wrong with the galaxy. Something wrong with the Force. If there was some great plan, Akan couldn’t see it. For the first time, he found himself doubting the Force itself, but only for a short moment.    When it had passed, he made a decision. To him, it was not the right one. Head turning back towards the silhouetted figure of Shadow ahead of him(from which he could feel her cold, but she was doing a good job ignoring it), Akan started after her. Slowly at first, but eventually he broke out into a run. This was because of...something. A feeling. The Narani were searching and getting close...or at least, something was getting close. Either way, being found was not likely to be a good idea.</blockquote>

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