Darkness.

It surrounds me.

Blanketing me in its inky embrace.

Silence is my company, and it's comforting. Just quiet and nothing.

Everything I want at this moment, is the quiet. Life has been hectic and agonising. Bonding Sickness hitting every few hours.

To simply lie in empty space with no yelling, no pain, no nothing.

It's perfect.

So perfect.

But I know it won't last. Nothing lasts forever. But that seems to be normal for me.

So I'll enjoy the quiet, I'll hold on to it. Keep it as my own until it's pried from my grasp like everything else I've lost in the past.

Like my friends in battle, and my family of old age. My freedom snatched away by the Empire. My childhood robbed with the looming shadow of responsibility and war.

And Ezra, taken from me because I wasn't strong enough to save him.

I was beaten and I'm paying the price by losing Ezra.

God, I am pathetic aren't I?

Typically, I would rise from this darkness and fight till the last drop of blood left my body. But not this time.

There's no point.

Ezra's going to die and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

What's worth living for when everything you love is stolen from you by the eager hands of death?

Colour Fly is probably next on the Grim Reaper's list.

White light burst from the side of the darkness, scorching my eyes as if it was fire. I growled in challenge, baring teeth towards the disruption to my peace.

Yup, even the calm of darkness is about to be taken from me.

Fantastic.

I grasp the black folds around me, trying desperately not to let it be yanked away.

However, the universe always wants my wishes to be denied.

Light fills my eyes, brilliant and burning, scorching me down to the very core. I turn my head away, the least I can do is ignore it.

My head's throbbing and something's talking. I can't define what it is. It's a kind of warbling noise but it sounded as if it was underwater. Muffled and blurred. I wasn't able to make sense of it.

At all.

More light erupted in my eyes, this time however, I felt a pinching sensation prick my shoulder. I curled my talons, gritting my teeth.

Pain.

Of course.

Pain, noise and heartache.

That's all I live for.

That's all the universe offers to me.

It's a crappy life, isn't it?

The warbling continues but it sounds almost....desperate? The pain strikes again, this time on my neck.

First off, ow.

Secondly, I recognize the pain.

Chopper.

Whiplash lurched up, wheezing with short breathes before collapsing again, crying out in agony.

Everything hurts.

Head, back, legs, even the tail?! How does that even make sense??

"C-Chopper?" Whiplash shuddered, not even recognizing his own voice that was hoarse and trembling like a leaf.

The astromech whirled, pressing a cool, metal arm to Whiplash's fevered forehead. He beeped firmly. Translation?

Don't ever scare me like that again you overgrown furnace

"Scared you?" Whiplash asked, barely coherent enough to connect the dots to what Chopper was on about. "I scared you?"

Chopper's head spun in circles as he, one might say, blew up in anger.

Yes you drukking scared me! You weren't breathing! Why wouldn't I be scared?! I had to shock you thirteen times at full voltage before I even got a response!

"F-Full voltage?" Whiplash repeated.

Yes! Why aren't you understanding how serious this is?! Whiplash, you were about to die when I got here!

Whiplash's didn't answer, his head spinning from lack of energy and the toxin from the mushrooms. 

Mushrooms.

Toxins.

Wasn't breathing.

Die.

Ezra.

"C-Chop, where's Ezra?"

In the Phantom. I've put him on the oxygen supply, but we need to go now, so hurry up!

"Chopper, I can't move, just leave alright? Ezra's more important then I am in this situation. I've already accepted I'm going to die. Just go."

Chopper didn't answer, frozen in place.

I won't leave you here, you can't make me

"Chopper, go."

I won't

"Chopper-"

I WON'T

"Chop-"

The droid slapped him. Right across the cheek.

You're my family, you're coming home. Now shrink so I can carry you're depressed ass into the Phantom

Whiplash was in shock.

"Did...did you just hit me?"

I can do worse, now shrink and don't you dare argue with me

Whiplash stared at the droid who stood before him. Stubborn and firm, refusing to give up on him. 

"O-Okay."
_______________________________

"And HA! I win! Forth time in a row!" Colour Fly proclaimed.

"No drukking way! You cheated!" Leo cried in outrage.

Colour Fly poked her toungue out, grinning smugly. "Tactics is the greatest friend you can have."

"I call bull krong!" Leo shouted.

"Take it druk head!" Colour Fly laughed.

"Language you two" Torch reprimanded quietly, gathering the cards back up and shuffling them.

"Oh hush Torch, we all know you're just as bad as us when it comes to cursing" Colour Fly smirked in his direction.

"Yeah, but I only curse when it's appropriate."

"I'm sorry, didn't you curse only minutes before when Sabine ate the last pizza roll?" Leo reminded with a grin.

Torch went pink. "I called dibs thank you very much" he lightly hit Leo with a slap of his tail.

"Since when does dibs count these days?" Sabine asked lazily, stretched out on Colour Fly's back.

Torch opened his mouth but closed it with a huff, pouting. Leo laughed at his boyfriend's actions, giving him a one winged hug.

"Cheer up T," he said. "There's spider meat later tonight remember?"

Torch grumbled but still nudged Leo's cheek affectionately.

Sabine had guessed by now they were in a relationship.

Torch suddenly straightened, horns swiveling.

"What is it?" Colour Fly asked.

"Do you not hear that?"

They fell silent, straining their ears. Eventually, they caught on to a quiet rumbling, like a ship engine.

"The Phantom!" Sabine exclaimed pointing to the small spacecraft in the sky.

"See Torch, told you they'd be fine" Leo smirked.

"There was nothing wrong with being worried" the male Firehorn answered.

"Come on, let's go see if those hooligans have made up yet" Colour Fly stood wings opening.

Sabine leapt up to her usual postion when flying the moment Colour Fly took off. The boys right behind her.

Many others had noticed the ship, a majority of the rebels clearing the drop off area. Sabine spotted Hera and Fawn running towards the landing zone, Moonshine, Kyber, Kanan, and Hurricane following.

Colour Fly landed to the side, Sabine leapt off and was fast to move beside the Twe'lik.

"Hera? Is everything o-"

"Sabine, hurry we need to get them out" Hera didn't look at the girl as she and Fawn sprinted to the Phantom.

"What? What happened?" Sabine asked in alarm but didn't hesitate to bolt after her. "Colour Fly! Leo! Torch! Come on!"

The three dragons sprang forward. Confused more than anything, but concern through the roof.

The ship landed a lot faster than normal, well, landed was a little generous. It fell to the ground as soon as it was close enough. Chopper was going ballistic in his port, working to get the door open as he shouted at Hera.

"I know Chopper just hurry up!" Hera exclaimed.

"Hera, what is going-?!"

Sabine's voice died in her throat. The Phantom had opened, allowing her to see inside. What she saw made her want to throw up.

Whiplash was collapsed out cold on the floor, body a mural of cuts, bites and blood. Ezra's face, oh god, was so white. A red blotch in his cheeks and sweat coated his forehead. Scarlet stained parts of his clothing and the fabric was torn in places.

"Oh gods no" Sabine barely heard Colour Fly whisper in horror.

Fawn snapped out of her frozen state. "Get them out! We have to move them to the med-bay!"

The reaction was instant. Sabine swooped into the Phantom and crouched beside Whiplash. She slipped her hands under his body, wincing at the high pitched, broken whine Whiplash let out.

"I'm sorry, boy" Sabine whispered, not even sure if Whiplash was lucid enough to hear her as she gathered him up in her arms. "But you gotta move."

Whiplash struggled for less than three seconds, going limp in Sabine's embrace, crooning so dispairingly it made Sabine's heart break. The Mandalorian cradled him like a baby, standing and shifting out of the way of Fawn, Kanan and Hera who went for Ezra.

Sabine stepped out from the Phantom and wished she could unsee the look Colour Fly had at seeing Whiplash. It was pure terror. She was completely paralyzed and couldn't speak. Torch was fast to put a wing around her and push her face into the crook of his neck.

"Get him outta here" he mouthed.

Sabine nodded and broke into a run towards the med-bay.
________________________________

Whiplash whined from his bed, claws grasping the sheets tightly.
Sabine bolted around the med-bay, grabbing things for Whiplash, panic threatening to take over. He'd been mumbling nonsense for the past few minutes, completely delirious.

"Okay, this is fine, yeah, this is all fine" Sabine knelt beside the bed, rinsing a cloth in cold water. "This is okay, he's going to be okay."

Carefully, she washed the blood and sweat off of the sapphire scales. Whiplash growled as the water slipped into his cuts, pain rippling across his already tense features.

"Sorry bud" Sabine apologized, "but we gotta clean you up."

Whiplash grunted, but Sabine doubted he could even hear her. Biting her tongue, Sabine continued washing Whiplash's injuries.

"Jesus, you really can't go anywhere without hurting yourself can you?" She sighed, "You're gonna get yourself killed if you keep this up."

Whiplash shuddered, talons opening and closing. Sabine stared as his claws curled over her fingers, and once finding them, grasped them tightly.

Sabine smiled weakly. "Just need some company huh?"

Whiplash crooned, relaxing the smallest bit. Sabine looked over the slashes and blood graffiti on Whiplash's skin.

"What did you do Whiplash?" Sabine whispered, using her free hand to carefully stroke underneath the dragon's chin. "What did you do to deserve this?"

Whiplash didn't answer, but his tail wagged the smallest fraction.
_______________________________

Fifteen minutes has passed but Sabine barely registered it. She'd cleaned up Whiplash's injuries, bandaged up his bad leg, and injected a serum of dragon tears into his back. It was so mangled that Sabine had to do it. It had succesfully healed over, but the way Whiplash had screamed when she injected it was mortifying.

Sabine sighed, raking a hand through her hair. "Jesus Christ" she murmured. "This all went to krong really fast."

A soft groan made Sabine look around. Whiplash's eyelids were fluttering open.

"Whiplash!" Sabine knelt beside the cot, taking his paw in hand. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Sabine?" Whiplash asked weakly, groaning at the throbbing in the back of his head.

"It's okay Whiplash" Sabine ran her thumb over the uninjured scales on his back. Which really wasn't many.

"W-What happened? Am.....Am I in the med-bay?"

"Right on Sherlock Holmes" Sabine smiled softly.

"But the...the cave? The cats....the toxins- EZRA!" Whiplash lurched to his feet but collapsed, gasping.

"Woah Whiplash, take it easy!" Sabine went to stabilize him.

"Druk" Whiplash hissed, grabbing his left leg.

"I'm sorry" Sabine quickly apologised. "Your leg's badly sprained-"

"It's okay" Whiplash gritted his teeth. "My own fault, where's Ezra?"

"In another room-"

"Take me to him."

"Whiplash I can't, Fawn said-"

"Sabine, he's on his death bed."

The Mandalorian froze, biting her lip. 

"He's going to die Sabine, please I need to see him."

"We're gonna take care of him, I promise you that" Sabine said.

"He breathed too many toxins Sabine, he-" Whiplash suddenly hacked, coughing so violently it brought up blood.

"So did you by the looks of things" Sabine stood, grabbing something from off the bench.

"Sabine please, I need to see him" Whiplash whimpered.

"Shhhhh, we'll take care of him, just rest, alright?" Sabine soothed. "Just try to calm down."

Whiplash shuddered, shaking his head fervently. "No, Sabine please-"

A needle was pressed into the base of his neck, making him freeze.

"I'm sorry bud" Sabine whispered. "I really am."

Whiplash stared at Sabine, betrayal and fear evident in his eyes. He fell onto the sheets, eyes half lidded.

"Why....would you....do that?" He slurred.

"You were getting too riled up" Sabine murmured. "You need to calm down."

"Druk.....you" Whiplash growled, eyes slipping close.

"I'm sorry."

She removed the syringe from Whiplash's neck, guilty about using the sedative, but it had to be done. Fawn had commed her and been specific about making sure that Whiplash didn't get stressed. It would only worsen his mental state.

Sabine brushed a hand over Whiplash's forehead, biting her lip. Her inner paranoia urged her to go to Ezra's aid, Whiplash's words shaking her to the core. But her concern overruled and forced her to stay with Whiplash.

Right now.

He needed her.