Even so, Kira bounced off it with enough force to send a burst of pain all along her right side. Agony swamped her as something wet slid down over her eye. Unconsciousness ate at her vision.
Jin flooded their bond. A pulling sensation came, sucking away her pain. Cool, methodical reason replaced it.
Kira forced her body to move. Brief sparks of agony lit her nerve endings before they disappeared down their bond.
“Hurry, Kira.”
Jin’s voice sounded strained.
For a being used to the cold, unfeeling of metal and circuitry, he had no way of coping with this level of pain.
“Jin,” Kira whispered as more blood obscured her vision.
Her mind was breaking. Her body following.
“Reach, Phoenix. Reach for us.”
Blindly, Kira extended her hand.
A hard grip caught her wrist, pulling her inside.
The link between Kira and Jin snapped.
Kira crumpled. The last thing she saw was a dark figure standing over hers. An unending void where his face should be.
Kira mouth formed a single word. “Torvald.”
Behind him, the hatch opened as Joule stepped inside with a worried look on his face. Finn behind him.
Kira’s body went limp as darkness descended.
seven
Kira’s head pulsed as she groaned. Why did she hurt so much?
The pain was everywhere. Every bone. Every muscle. She was pretty sure even her hair was in agony.
A hand touched her shoulder as Kira tried to sit up and failed. “Easy.”
Kira forced her eyes open to find Torvald crouched over her. His touch calming as his hands moved over her armor.
“Your shoulder is dislocated,” Torvald informed her.
“My ribs are broken too.”
In multiple places from the feel of it.
Kira tried very hard not to glance in Finn’s direction, his severe expression almost frightening in its intensity.
Kira focused on Joule as the lesser of two evils. “Was the ki shield you?”
Joule’s gaze flitted over the damaged sections of her armor, not seeming to know where to look.
To be fair, her armor was pretty impressive at the moment. It looked like she’d tangled with a meat grinder and lost. The armor dented and banged up, scrapes running along one side like she’d been shoved into her ship and then dragged the length of it.
Regret filled Joule’s expression. “I’m sorry it wasn’t enough.”
“Don’t be,” she gasped out, trying to breathe around the compressed feeling in her chest. “I would have been dead otherwise.”
