On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XL

Luna couldn't help the scream that was ripped from her lips as she felt a vibroblade enter her back before reamerging on the lower right section of her stomach as her legs gave out from the sudden pain and strength from behind the blade—forcing her onto her hands and knees. The once apprentice heard someone laughing behind her and through the Force saw the Hand, who clearly hadn't been dying quickly enough, on the ground. Luna squeezed her eyes shut against the pain, tightening her grip on the deactivated lightwhip's hilt. The laughter behind her died with a sharp snap.

She couldn't care less, the vibroblade was still vibrating, still cutting. A normal knife—normal anything that wasn't made of plasma—should remain inside the body upon impalement to stanch the bleeding among other things, but a vibroblade could not as leaving it would only do more damage.

Watching herself through the Force, Luna mentally grabbed the vibroblade in her back and drew it out, letting it clatter to the floor beside her. She was lucky that she had moved quickly enough to have the weapon impale her in the lower right side of her abdomen, missing the more vital organs.

But that left Luna with two gaping wounds.

"Okay, Luna, deep breaths. You're alright. Use the Force. Clear your mind of the pain," she instructed herself as she placed a hand on the wound on her stomach to stanch the bleeding, struggling to keep her thoughts moving in a calm and logical order. She didn't have time to deal with an injury, let alone time to go into shock from it. Don't have time to heal. I've got to stop the bleeding and get moving.

The more pressing wound was the one on her back: It was bigger and harder to reach, meaning she couldn't easily put pressure on it to slow the blood loss—the most dangerous part of being stabbed by anything other than a lightsaber.

Doing her best to put continuous pressure on the relatively smaller wound, Luna removed her jacket and ripped apart the bottom on her shirt, eventually exposing both wounds to the air. She pressed most of the cleaner rags to the wound on her stomach with as much pressure as she could manage while she wrapped the remainder of the rags into a ball and placed it between her teeth as she moved into a one-handed crawling position. Luna mentally raised her lightsaber into the air and activated it with the Force before, taking a deep, readying breath as she menatally counted down. Upon reaching one, the ex-Shadow then pressed the glowing blade against the wound on her back and screamed bloody murder, the sound echoing through the halls of the seemingly empty base.

Unable to bear the pain any longer, Luna's concentration broke and the weapon clattered to the ground deactivated. She quickly spit out the rags, breathing hard.

"Okay. Okay. It's cauterized. It's over," Luna half whimpered to herself, trying to keep herself on task as she desperately sucked in oxygen and slowly moved to sit on her knees, blindly grabbing her lightsaber with her free hand and hooking it onto her belt, pulling on the darkside to gather the strength to ignore the pain and move. Luna couldn't afford to care about the prickling in her eyes—the tell tale sign of yellow invading—she had to move. "Now, stand. Three, two, on—aaugh!" Luna couldn't help but cry out as the newly burnt skin on her back rebelled against the sudden movement while the wound threatened to reopen. The once Sith apprentice stumbled to the wall for a momentary rest, sucking in a breath of air even as she looked around with the Force....

Darkspots were coming her way and the missile was close enough for the Force to be warning her of impending danger along with where it suggested she start racing to....she failed to note the fact the Force's current definition of safety did not appear to be on the roof.

Safety is ahead. Suck it up and run. Were you Vader's apprentice or not?

The lightside would do her no good. Not here. Not now.