Grief is a powerful motivator. Vengeance is a stronger one.
Not many people can say they know a famous bounty hunter. Even fewer can say that the hunter is their friend. Astéri Vorte doesn't think she is one of those few, especially after her father...
Boba glanced up from where he was dragging Taskelli's unconscious form across the docks. Astéri seemed to be doing fine as she fought off the remaining guards.
He was about to call her over when the last mercenary shot her.
Boba's vision tunnelled, forcing him to watch the scene almost in slow motion. An unbridled scream of fury and pain escaped his lips as he watched Astéri plunge into the icy water.
Before he even knew what was happening, he had reached for his blaster and sent the man who had shot his friend falling to the ground, a fresh wound smoking in his chest.
Boba activated his rangefinder and scanned the stretch of sea where Astéri had fallen. Nothing. He changed the setting to radar, then again to sonar. Still nothing. She must have already sunk too deep.
Dropping his unconscious bounty to the dock, Boba took a running start and dived into the water after Astéri. Water trickled into his helmet, forcing him to take one last gulp of air and then hold his breath. His lungs burned as he desperately searched for his fallen friend. Pumping his legs, Boba propelled himself downwards, silently begging that there was nothing dangerous swimming around in the sea.
He was completely blinded by the darkness and almost out of breath when his fingers brushed someone else's. Grasping them by the hand, he swam back up towards the surface. As light filtered back through the water, Boba caught a flash of pink hair swirling in the currents, and relief flooded his chest. He had found her. He had found her.
Repeating this mantra gave him strength as he heaved himself up onto the docks. Nero Taskelli was still lying unconscious where he had been left. Boba crawled out of the freezing ocean, coughing and spluttering icy seawater. Shifting so that he was sitting up, he rolled Astéri onto his lap and tore off his helmet, tossing it to one side. Ice crystals were already forming in Astéri's wet hair and on her eyelashes, the cold turning the water droplets to solid chips. Frantically, he checked for a heartbeat.
There was nothing.
Boba's own pulse rang in his ears. It sounded wrong. There was just one heartbeat, when there should have been two.
It should've been him, not Astéri. He had failed her.
He was too late.
"No... no! Asteri, please, come back to me!"
Boba felt like his heart was splitting in two. Sobbing, he clutched the broken body of his friend to his chest. He had failed her. She was dead.
She was dead.
Boba sat there for what felt like hours, but must have only been thirty seconds, unwilling to move. Astéri must've only been in the water for about a minute and a half, but it had been enough. Enough to take away the last living person that Boba cared about.
A minute and a half...
How long was the revival window for someone whose heart had stopped? Boba racked his brain. He vaguely remembered being taught something about this, a long time ago. He recalled what it was now. Once someone had died, you had approximately four to six minutes in which you could revive them before they started to suffer brain damage. After that, they would be clinically dead.
How long had Astéri been dead for? Probably about three minutes, by now. Boba would have to work quickly.
Shifting Astéri so that he could reach her ribcage, Boba started to do chest compressions. He had no medical experience whatsoever, but he knew that this was generally the best course of action.
It didn't help. He knew he could try mouth to mouth resuscitation, but the problem wasn't so much getting air into Astéri's lungs, it was getting the water out. Besides, it wouldn't even help if her heart wasn't beating. But how to start it up again?
Boba's gaze fell on Astéri's pulse bands. Hoping that he still had enough time, he slipped them off her wrists and reached for the switch to prime them. They would probably do as makeshift defibrillators. Silently praying for it not to just make her irrevocably dead, Boba pressed the electric charges to Astéri's chest.
Please, work. I couldn't bear it if I lost you, not again. Never again.
She spasmed wildly before going still again, but this time, something was different. Pressing his ear to Astéri's chest, Boba heard a faint heartbeat. Swiftly, he rolled her onto her side, crying with relief as the girl heaved in a shaky breath. He held her as icy water tricked out of her mouth. Boba couldn't believe it. His idea had worked. She was alive.
Boba carried Astéri back to Slave I and laid her gently onto his bunk, before going to fetch an oxygen mask. He wasn't sure if she was breathing properly, but he was taking no chances. She would probably be unconscious for quite a while, having most likely sustained serious nerve damage from the electric pulse she was shot with. Boba sat by her side for a while, smiling faintly, before brushing a flyaway strand of hair behind Astéri's ear and standing up to go and fetch his prisoner.
Nero Taskelli was still lying out cold on the docks and it only took a few minutes to drag him back to the ship. He would be having far less pleasant accommodations than Astéri; there was a cell in the cargo hold with his name on it.
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I have art of this chapter, so here ya go:
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Jurassicat_2000 I hope you liked this chapter. Please don't hurt me 😳
This was very hard to write, as well. It's quite difficult to get someone's thought process right when they're trying to resurrect someone lol 😂
