Cora Tonra

All Cora could feel was pain. When she finally came to after fighting with Kaia against Kylo Ren, she could barely move, and her back felt as if someone had set it on fire and left it to burn. It was agony to lay there, helpless, but she couldn't work up the strength to push herself to her feet.

Sparks shot out from somewhere above her, coming dangerously close to her face as they fell, and she winced. This is not good, she thought to herself grimly. How am I going to get out of this one?

As if to answer her question, she suddenly heard the sound of metal being fiddled with, and a few seconds later, she saw a pair of feet drop onto the ground from what she assumed was a ventilation pipe.

"It's a good thing I found you," Kelsa remarked, and Cora felt herself being lifted up by the arms.

"Thanks," she gasped as Kelsa hoisted one of her arms over her shoulder to support her, seeing as Cora couldn't stand on her own.

"What happened?" Kelsa demanded as they moved slowly down the hall.

"Kylo Ren," Cora responded. "Kaia and I were fighting him, and he sliced me in the back."

"Well I figured that part out," Kelsa snorted. "So do you know what happened to Kaia?"

Cora shook her head, which took a surprising amount of effort in her state. "No. Last I saw of her, she was still fighting Ren."

"Great," Kelsa grumbled. "Then that probably means she was the one who stole the TIE fighter with Ersela."

"Wait, what?" Cora exclaimed. "Stole a TIE? Why would they do that?" She paused for a moment, then sighed. "No that's definitely something Kaia would do."

"I think they're going to try to contact the Resistance," Kelsa told her. "And then hopefully we can get off this ship." She glanced at Cora with a look of concern. "You need medical attention as soon as possible."

"Wow, really?" Cora muttered. "I couldn't tell." She winced as a sharp pain, more intense than the throbbing, shot through her back. Kelsa's grip on her tightened as Cora stumbled. "But how are we going to last that long? Also, where is Lyra?"

"About that," Kelsa began awkwardly. "Lyra kind of got...captured."

"What?" Cora cried, perhaps a little too loudly. She lowered her voice as she continued, "So now we have to save her too?"

"Yeah," Kelsa responded, sounding exasperated herself. "But I'm sure we'll think of something."

"I sure hope so," Cora remarked. "I've heard stories of what happens to prisoners here from Kaia. It's not pretty."

"All the more reason to hurry," Kelsa pointed out. There was the sound of footsteps marching towards them, and Cora felt a rush of panic shoot through her, which Kelsa's face mirrored, before being masked by determination. "I want to get off this ship as soon as possible."

"I assume you have a plan?" Cora asked as the footsteps faded.

"Kind of," Kelsa replied, shrugging a little despite Cora's weight on her shoulders. "I was thinking that we could use the ventilation to get in."

"That sounds a little too easy," Cora observed. "But I guess it's worth a try."

"Good." Kelsa eased her against the wall and leaned down, sliding the grate to the ventilation aside. "Because I don't have any other ideas. Now get in."

Cora obeyed, slowly getting down into a crawling position and inching into the duct. Kelsa followed close behind her, carefully putting the grate back into place before turning towards Cora, which was hard to do in such a narrow space.

"Where exactly is the prison block?" Cora asked as they started crawling, in no particular direction.

"Um, I think it's on one of the lower levels of the ship," Kelsa answered, but she didn't sound as confident as Cora would have liked. "I'm sure we'll find it." She paused, as if orienting herself. "Go right where the duct splits up ahead."

"Whatever you say," Cora muttered, and then they set off, hopefully to the destination they desired. Kelsa was able to give mostly reliable directions, though a few times, they had to stop to check their location by peering through the vents down into the hallways below.

After a while, Kelsa announced, "We're almost there! Just one more right!" Cora let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally," she whispered. Her back stung even more from brushing up against the metal duct walls, and she was glad that in a few moments, that wouldn't be the case (though the pain would still linger).

She turned right at the split and soon, she and Kelsa were crouched around another ventilation grate, overlooking the prisoner strapped to a torture rack inside the red and black room. Cora exchanged a glance with her friend before cautiously removing the grate.

Lyra looked up, and Cora could see tears in her eyes. Uh oh, Cora thought as Kelsa slid out of the ventilation duct and landed onto the floor of the cell with a metallic clang. That can't be good.

"You guys found me!" Lyra cried quietly, understanding the importance of maintaining some level of silence.

"Yeah, we did," Kelsa responded as she glanced up at Cora, ready to catch her as she tried to emulate Kelsa's smooth movement, but failed miserably and ended up knocking Kelsa over in a rather ungraceful movement. They both pushed themselves off the ground, though Cora moved a bit more slowly due to her injury.

"Sorry," she muttered, shaking out her arms and looking down at her armor in disgust. "Ugh, I can't wait to get out of this thing."

"Me too," Kelsa agreed as she got to work removing Lyra's restraints. Cora moved towards the door, to act as sort of a lookout.

She heard Lyra gasp behind her, and she turned to look at her friend, a bit confused. "What happened to you?" Lyra exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

"Kylo Ren," Cora replied grimly, and she saw a shadow fall over Lyra's eyes. "But I'm fine. I'll survive."

"I sure hope so," Kelsa murmured, her eyes on the controls of the rack, and Cora wondered if she was supposed to hear that or not.

There was a hissing sound as the clamps on Lyra's arms and legs released. Cora's friend pushed herself off the rack and landed on her feet, stumbling only a little, and wiped the tears out of her eyes, though they were still red, and her cheeks were clearly tear-stained.

"What happened?" Cora asked carefully as Kelsa scanned the room, looking for alternative ways to escape besides the ventilation duct, which was too high to get back into, unless Cora used the Force, which she was not about to do, or the door.

"I'll tell you later," Lyra replied. "For now, we should focus on getting out of here."

"I agree," Kelsa said. She pulled out her blaster and moved towards the door. "And I think the only way out is through the door."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Cora sighed, instinctively reaching for her lightsaber as Kelsa got ready to open the door. Even as she was about to stop herself, remembering that no one here could know she was a Jedi, she realized that she didn't have her lightsaber. Panic shot through her, but she kept her face even as she pulled out her blaster instead. Thankfully, she still had that at least.

"Everyone ready?" Kelsa asked, glancing from Cora to Lyra, then back at the controls to the door.

"We're ready," Cora responded. She turned to look at Lyra and told her, "Stay behind me until we can get you a weapon."

Lyra nodded feverently. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

Ignoring the painful throbbing in her back, Cora tensed as Kelsa slammed her fist into the controls and opened the door, revealing a guard on either side of the door, and another squadron marching down the hall.

"This is going to be fun," Kelsa muttered before jumping out into the hallway, Cora and Lyra close behind her. She started blasting away at the stormtroopers, easily taking out the guards, and Cora joined in as soon as the other troopers started firing back. Lyra grabbed a blaster of her own from one of the fallen guards and managed to shoot a trooper that had been aiming for Cora that she hadn't even noticed.

"Thanks," she called gratefully. Lyra smiled back before turning her attention to another group of stormtroopers coming their way.

"We've got company!" she cried, taking a few steps back towards Cora and Kelsa. Their backs to each other, they blasted away, but Cora got the feeling that if they didn't get moving soon, they wouldn't last much longer.

Then suddenly, Kelsa's com started blinking, and both Cora and Lyra glanced at her, still dodging bolts and firing back.

Kelsa pressed the button on her com and a familiar voice remarked, "I heard you guys are in trouble. Good thing we got here in time."

"Kaia, how did you get back here?" Kelsa cried, narrowly avoiding a blast to the face.

"In case you didn't notice, the Steadfast is out of hyperspace," Kaia replied. "And Ersela and I were rescued by the Resistance. We're in the hangar again. They seem pretty angry. You might want to move fast."

"But where did you-" Kelsa began before the com blinked off. She sighed in frustration. "Nevermind then." She turned to Cora and Lyra, her expression determined. "Alright guys, we have to get out of here as fast as possible. Get ready to run."

"Yeah, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can't exactly run," Cora pointed out. They started moving down the hallway, away from the unrelenting blaster fire.

"Oh, right," Kelsa frowned. After a moment of thinking, she decided, "Lyra and I will help you." She gestured for Cora to put one arm over her shoulders, and then Lyra pulled Cora's other arm around hers. "Let's go."

They raced through the Star Destroyer, though Lyra and Kelsa did most of the work. Occasionally, they had to blast stormtroopers who tried to stop them, but for the most part, they were just running. When they made it to the hangar, they found a Resistance transport ship waiting for them, where Ersela was standing on the ramp, her Mandalorian blaster ready to fire at any attackers who would almost definitely be coming their way.

"Get on!" she cried. "Hurry!" She fired her blaster at a deck officer who was running towards Cora and her friends. He collapsed dead onto the ground a few feet behind them, and Lyra yelped with fear.

Picking up the pace, Kelsa and Lyra sprinted up the hangar, as if Cora's weight was nothing, and a few moments later, they were inside the transport with Ersela, the ramp closing behind them.

They set Cora down onto one of the seats that lined the wall, while Ersela went to get a medpac as the ship eased out of the hangar. Lyra sat in a seat beside her while Kelsa went over to the cockpit, which was actually a repurposed B-wing Mark II cockpit, where Kaia was piloting the ship.

"Where are we going now?" Cora asked as Ersela returned with the medpac and pulled out bacta-treated bandages.

"Back to Ajan Kloss," Ersela replied as Kaia called that they were about to make the jump to hyperspace, and Cora noticed that she had a particularly ugly cut on her lip, and she wondered how she had gotten it. "General Organa wants us all to be ready for a final assault against the First Order."

She gestured for Cora to swing her legs around and turn to the side, and she did so, ready for the stinging agony to finally recede. The bandages were cold and wet when Ersela applied them, and while they made the wound sting a little more at first, the feeling soon faded and was replaced by a sensation of cool relief.

"That feels so much better," she sighed happily. "Thank you."

"No problem," Ersela replied, putting back the bandages and closing up the medpac. She glanced at Lyra as she stood up, her expression one of concern. "Are you alright?"

Lyra looked up at her, her grip tight on the sides of her chair. "No, not really," she responded honestly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ersela asked gently, putting one hand on Lyra's shoulder.

Cora's friend shook her head. "Not right now." Ersela nodded slowly and pulled away, moving to put the medpac back. Cora watched her go, her worry growing.

"What happened to you and Kaia after you stole the TIE fighter?" she blurted. Ersela turned towards her, hesitation flashing briefly across her face.

"We ended up in deep space," she told her after a moment. She moved towards the cockpit as she continued, "Then we crashed onto a very strange planet. It felt like we were there for several days, but it was really only a few seconds." She shook her head. "It was all very confusing." And with that, she vanished into the cockpit, leaving Cora alone with a very quiet Lyra, and a lot of confusion of her own.