Insomnia had had a firm grasp on you even since you were a carefree child wandering the streets of Coruscant, now though you were part of the crew taking the fight to the Empire and sleep was most definitely only a thing of dreams.

'Atleast it's a few hours of piece.' You thought as you got into your standard routine of reading, meditating and just generally enjoying the Mantis without the rest of the team bouncing around the place. 'Where was I...' you flipped through the pages of your current interest until you landed to where you had finished last, the intricacies of AT-AT repair and maintenance, who knows when it might come in handy and you had to take what you could get during such times.

A few pages down and for once you could feel your eyelids fall heavy and slowly the fell shut, although only a few minutes.

"What?" You called out in a half-asleep state, once you had regained your composure you knew nobody had called your name, but you could hear an unpleasant half-cry from another sleeping pod aboard. "Greez? Cal?" You called out as your feet fell into a pair of slippers and your blaster sat nicely in your pocket. No answer and your mind immediately fell into chaos, forever worried that the Empire would find you and grab you and your friends in the night, they were known to live up to their Boogeyman reputation but with the help of the Nightsister, there was no way they would be able to track the Mantis and find you.

You peeked through the windows of the pods, Cal lay turning slightly in his bed, Greez and Cere both snored deeply with an unappealing drool slowly dripping from the corner of their mouths. You turned down into the kitchen area, Merrin turned back and forth and grabbed harshly onto the makeshift bed which had been set up for her. Her eyes stayed tightly shut as she murmured and spluttered out repeated words, 'stop', 'back', all words of pain and fear.

"Merrin." You held lightly onto her wrist in an attempt to wake her up but she was caught tightly in her trance. "Merrin!" You called out this time louder and you grabbed harder. Her eyes shop open and without her realising a small flick of her wrist sent you hurtling across the room and crashing against the windscreen of the ship.

"Where am I?" She called out.

"On the Mantis, you're okay, I promise." Slowly and with raised hands you cautiously walked towards her and watched her slowly come back to reality.

"I'm so sorry." She rushed over to check your injuries, they were superficial at most and would heal in a few minutes. "I don't know what was happening."

"You were having a bad dream I think."

"That was no dream." She led you over to her bed and the two of you sat down hand in hand. "I was there."

"Where?"

"Back on Dathomir, when the slaughter happened." She dropped her head into your lap and slowly the tears that covered her face had dried. "I was back there."

"Well you aren't there now. Nobody will hurt you here." She smiled ever so softly but kept her head firmly on you lap. "Are you comfortable there?" She nodded and curled her legs up on the other side of the bed. You reached over for a cushion and gently lifted her head and placed it underneath. "Go to sleep, I'll watch over you, don't worry."

"But you need to sleep." A deep yawn escaped her lips and your hand dropped tenderly onto hers.

"I wasn't going to sleep anyway."

~*~

Written by Aaron.