Bounty Hunter Anon

by Sunny Solaire

Last One Out, Get the Lights

Your entire forearm is stinging like hell. The pain... The agonizing pain is unbearable...

...

What's happening? What's going on? There's... a voice... A little voice inside your head... It's angry... And it's getting bigger.

...

How long has it been?

...

Been since what?

...

You don't know...

...

Probably best not to think about it... You should just sleep...

...

There's another voice now... It's in your ear... It's... familiar...

...

You don't like it...

...

But...you do... You do like it...

"..non...ake up...Anon!"

It's her...

...

Sunset!

"WAKE UP, ANON!"

Your eyes shoot open and you take a quick breath as you see the familiar shape of Sunset's helmet directly over you. "Anon! Oh, thank the Force! Anon!"

She reaches for something and pulls out a small green vial... What is that? That's right, it's the serum!

You just mumble and breathe shakily as your vision fades in and out. You think you see her do something to it, but you aren't sure... It's all fuzzy... You feel her grab your cheeks and squeeze as she lifts your chin up.

You feel a pinch in your neck followed by a burning sensation that begins to work its way through your nerves and veins. You groan again as the burning reaches the back of your head. The angry voice begins to slowly fade and you start remembering everything that happened. The ship, Mandalore, Sunset, the Rakghouls...

The Rakghouls... That's right, you were bitten! Sunset just saved your life.

"Sus... Sunset... Y-You..." You mumble at her.

She cuts you off. "Anon, listen to me. I need you to lay down and hold your arm out for me, okay?"

Your arm? The one that was bitten? Why?

Sunset pushes you down to the ground and lays your injured arm out to the side. Your senses start returning and you feel your body begin to work again, but you're still way out of it. Your arm still kills too. What is she doing?

Just then, you hear a crack, followed by a loud hum and everything goes all red. Your eyes focus enough to see Sunset looking down at you, holding a red lightsaber... Your lightsaber....

It comes down next to you and suddenly, the pain in your arm intensifies one thousandfold.

"AAAAAAAHHH!!!!" You scream. Your senses are definitely awake now as you grip your left arm.

Or, at least you try to...

You look over to see your left arm on the ground and you command it to get up and move away from the lightsaber, but it doesn't move. It's only now that you notice that it isn't connected to anything anymore and the realization sets in. Your arm is gone.

Your breathing quickens and you hold your left side tight. Sunset gets down and grabs your cheeks, forcing you to look at her. "Anon, I need you to focus! You have to stand up now! We have to leave NOW!"

You keep panting as you stare back at her. "L... Leave... Right... O-Okay..."

She grabs you by the right arm and hoists you up. You look down at your legs... You still have legs... Do they work?

---

You frantically try to get Anon back to his feet. It's quite the process. He's gone into shock.

It's your fault. You cut off his arm...

You feel absolutely horrible, but you fight back your feelings and try to focus. You make sure that his lightsaber was on your belt and you grunt as you hoist him up. "Come on Anon... Work with me here!"

You feel the ship boom and rumble beneath your feet as the ship's engine cores begin to exhaust themselves.

Finally, you get him up and he leans against you. "You okay?! You good?! Can you stand?!"

He gives a few more shaky breaths, but he nods. "Y-Yeah... I'm... I'm okay..."

You release him for a moment and bend down to grab his discarded helmet. You put it on his head and lock it in place. "Come on, Anon! Use those legs and let's get back to the ship!"'

You tug and pull him along, making him nearly fall down, but you catch him and he begins to slowly move his legs to keep up with you. You lead him back into the hallway you came in from and proceed back down the darkened corridor once again.

It's a grueling process and you're moving so much slower than you'd like to, but you keep on going. You walk down the hallway as fast as you can and turn left. The ship rumbles and creaks once again and you both lean up against wall to support yourselves.

<"T MINUS FIVE MINUTES TO REACTOR CORE OVERLOAD.">

You grunt and push off the wall, dragging Anon along with you. "Come on! We'll make it!"

He's starting to snap out of it. "Yeah... Yeah we will..." He moves his legs faster alongside you and you lead yourselves back toward the hangar.

Twilight comes on through your comms. "Sunset! Where are you?!"

You make another right followed by a left as you continue to retrace your steps. "Nearly there! Start up the ship!"

You and Anon continue running down the corridors as fast as you can go. You see sparks fly around you as something explodes just ahead, but you push through it.

<"T MINUS TWO MINUTES TO REACTOR CORE OVERLOAD.">

You finally reach the hallway that leads back to the hangar.

"Almost there... Almost there..." You're panting hard and your legs are killing you from running with all this extra weight , but you press onward.

Anon is now awake enough to pull most of his own weight and he runs alongside you, albeit slowly, and still gripping his left side. Everything inside the hangar is rumbling and creaking. Support beams fall from the ceiling and onto the ground beside you as you run out the doorway and toward your ship.

You both run to the exit ramp as fast as you can and see Applejack standing there. "Come on!"

The lights in the hangar flicker on and off for a bit until they burst and shower the hangar in sparks. Applejack runs off the ship to meet you both and pull you aboard.

You practically throw Anon on board and collapse onto the ground next to him. "Go! Get us out of here! Now!"

The ship whirs to life and hovers off the ground. The exit ramp slowly shuts behind you and you remove your helmet, dropping it on the floor next to Anon, both of you panting hard. Once the ramp is completely shut, you hang on as the ship flies out of the hangar and back into Mandalorian Space. Seconds later, you hear the loud boom as the cruiser's engine cores overheat and explode in a massive fireball.

You stay still, panting hard as you roll onto your back on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. "We... We did it... We're alive..."

Redheart and Fluttershy come over and help Anon to his feet as they lead him into the makeshift medical bay in the main hold.

Fluttershy looks back at you. "Are you going to be okay Sunset?"

You just nod at her, but you don't get up. "Y-Yeah... I'm fine..."

No you're not. You know you needed to do it, it was the only way to save his life, but you absolutely hate yourself for cutting his arm off. His whole arm...

So many thoughts and feelings are spinning through your head right now. Your legs are sore, you're out of breath, and now you have this extra guilt weighing down on your conscience.

You're so tired. You don't even care that you're on the floor right now, you just need to rest for a while.

You take a deep breath and shut your eyes as Big Mac, or whoever, pilots the ship away from Mandalore and back to the Republic cruiser.

Author's Note:

Comments

[Asimov_Law]

"Last one out, get the lights"
Halo 3?