Rude Awakenings

Marin still remembered the day she had first arrived on Dantooine. She had been only fourteen back then and had just built her own lightsaber a few days earlier. She had been itching to test it in battle - not only because she was proud of the double-bladed weapon, but also because she couldn't have hated the idea of moving to the quiet farm world more. Having lived all of her previous live on Coruscant, the change of atmosphere had been huge, and not at all to the girl's liking.

Her frustration of being transferred to Dantooine had finally culminated in her hurling her lightsaber at her bed, swiftly cutting said bed in half. Needless to say, her Master had not been very happy about this when he had found out. Her lightsaber had been confiscated for quite a while and she had been forced to sleep on the floor for over a week before she finally got a new bed. By the end of that time, both her neck and back had been hurting a lot. She had sworn to never sleep on the floor again, no matter what.

While she never cut her bed in half again, things did not go as planned either. Various reasons had lead to her ending up spending quite many nights sleeping on the floor and waking up with a terrible neck ache during her years on Dantooine.

Now, Marin suddenly found herself missing all those mornings. To say this was worse would be the understatement of the year - even counting in the time Malak had compared her to a kinrath, stating that in his opinion, kinraths were only slightly less charming than her.

Literally every part of her body was aching - she actually felt pain in some parts of her body she had not even realized could get hurt. And this wasn't even the worst part. No, physical things she could endure; she had been trained for that. But this emptiness she felt - it was something else.

She was not sure what to make of this. Her first thought had been that she was dead - she sure as hell felt like she was. She had ditched that theory after a moment of considering, deciding that if she truly was dead, she probably would not hurt as much. Besides, dead people weren't really supposed to think, right? She didn't really feel she had become one with the Force, either - actually, she felt quite the opposite.

The memory of the moment just before she had passed out still managed to make her shiver. It had been like she had not felt the Force at all; as if she had been blinded and deafened at the same time, only she imagined this was worse. She wondered if this was what being on the dark side felt like. The thought was unpleasant. She felt the Force again, now - it was faint, but at least it was there.

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. She could see the sunlight pushing its way through the thick jungle growth and she realized it was no longer night. A pulse of panic ran through her as she realized she had no idea how much time had passed. With a sudden jolt, she pushed herself to sit up, immediately afterwards realizing this had been a mistake. She felt a terrible, searing pain on her left side, almost strong enough to cause her to lose consciousness again. She shut her eyes tightly and bit her lip, determined to stay awake by the sheer strength of her will.

"Easy there," a gentle voice said, and it was only then that Marin realized she was not alone. The voice sounded familiar, but it took a moment for her fuzzy mind to find a face to match the voice. She was determined to do so anyway, because opening her eyes again seemed like too much effort - at the moment, sitting up demanded all of her remaining strength.

"Baldie?" She finally asked. It troubled her that she had not sensed his presence through the Force - she sensed it now, weakly, but only because she already knew he was there.

For a second, Malak could only stare at her. It was all he could do to keep himself from laughing. Here she was, in a pool of her own blood, barely able to sit up, her voice only a weak whisper, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was 'Baldie'. No 'what happened', no 'where am I', no 'nice to see you' - just 'Baldie'.

"You have a nasty wound there," Malak informed rather unhelpfully, as Marin had undoubtedly already figured that out herself. "I suggest you don't try moving too much." He gently pulled her closer to him, supporting her body against his lap. "Is this good?"

"Better," she said, allowing herself to relax. They stayed silent for a while, before she gathered enough strength to talk more. "How long have we been here?"

"I came here and found you a bit over five hours ago. As for you," he shrugged, "I don't know. You were unconscious then, so I'm guessing not much longer. Otherwise you'd have been eaten by cannoks or something."

"Ah," she said, processing this information, "my Jedi Knight in shining armor... come to rescue me from the evil cannoks?"

"Something like that, yeah. I'd replace evil Cannoks by evil Mandalorians, though," he added as an afterthought.

"A question."

"Shoot."

"The battle is over... right?"

"Yeah."

"Then... what the heck are we still doing here? Did you just figure this was a nice place for a picnic?"

"You are an amazing woman," Malak said, shaking his head in disbelief. "You'd think being on the verge of death would do something to your sense of humor. But to answer your question: my white shuttle is already on the way here."

Marin barely registered his last sentence. She thought she shouldn't be surprised; from what she remembered of the battle, she had been injured quite badly, and she guessed five hours in a jungle with the worst nurse in the Galaxy had done little to improve her situation. Feeling her body tense, Malak instantly cursed himself in his mind. Leave it to him to say just the wrong words.

"Verge of death, huh?" She said, trying to sound casual.

"Marin," he began, not really knowing what to say.

"It's all right. I'm actually surprised I stayed alive this long, anyway."

"Marin, I didn't mean-"

"What with you tending to my wounds, that is," she added, managing a small smile.

"Okay, that's it," Malak said, finally deciding that if she was well enough to joke about her condition, so was he. "I swear it to you, Blondie, the minute you're feeling better, I'm going to beat you right back into that condition."

"You're such a jerk," Marin said, trying to let out a laugh, but ending up coughing a little. "That's no way to talk to a dying lady."

"You might be close, but you're not dying," Malak said determinedly. He knew as well as Marin did that he was pretty much clueless when it came to tending the wounded, but he also knew the woman was strong enough to survive this - she had to. "And you're certainly no lady. So in my books, I'm entitled to talk to you in whatever way I wish." Even though he could not see any change in her expression, Malak knew she was smiling - or at least would have been, had she not been that tired. "And besides, I did save your life, so you could at least be a little thankful," he continued when she said nothing.

"Thanks," she muttered.

He blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything. Marin said nothing either, and after a while he realized she had fallen asleep. This made the situation rather uncomfortable for him, as his position wasn't exactly comfy, but he didn't move away, not wanting to disturb her sleep.

The next time Marin woke up and opened her eyes was considerably more pleasant. She found herself from the medbay of Revan's ship with her wound healed. The pain was mostly gone, too, and even though her mind was still somewhat fuzzy, her connection to the Force was back to normal, and that was the most important thing.

Now that she was in the relative safety of the medbay, the events back on Dxun actually felt somewhat distant. She wasn't sure anymore if she had ever lost her connection to the Force in the first place; perhaps being wounded that badly had simply caused her to imagine it.

A quick look around the room revealed she was alone at the moment. She was fairly sure something between three to five days had passed since Malak had found her on Dxun; she knew she must have spent at least two - probably three - days inside a kolto thank. Otherwise she would be hurting a whole lot more at the moment.

Not being one to just lie around and wait, she tentatively pushed herself to sit up and was pleased to find out she managed to do that without any trouble this time. Encouraged by her success, she flung her feet over the bed, deciding that if she was well enough to sit, she would certainly be well enough to walk, too.

When Malak entered the room three minutes later, he found Marin lying on the floor in a very amusing position. Sensing his arrival, Marin felt herself blush.

"Okay, Baldie, go ahead and laugh," she snapped, "I dare you."

"I wouldn't laugh," he said, his tone completely serious. Marin was surprised to sense no deceit from him. She decided this had to have something to do with her connection to the Force not yet having been completely restored, even though she knew well this was not the case.

"Well then, don't just stand there. Help me up," she commanded. Without a word, Malak dropped the small bag he had been holding to the floor and obeyed, lifting her back to her bed.

"Thanks."

"That's the second time you're thanking me this week. You must really like me," Malak said, grinning widely.

"You're still a jerk," Marin informed, "I've just woken up from the dead - well, almost anyway - so you could be a little nicer, you know."

"I am nice. I saved your life and now I came to see how you're recovering."

Marin stared at him, not saying anything. Malak's grin grew even wider.

"Can I get you anything? Water? Are you hungry?"

"Water," she said, still staring at him as if he had lost his mind.

He nodded and left the room, returning after a short while with a mug in his hand. He handed it to her and she proceeded to examine it carefully.

"It's not poisoned," he said, sighing as he sat down on the chair next to her bed.

"Why are you being nice to me?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously while she drank. She emptied the whole mug at once, then placed it on the bedside table.

"I'm your Jedi Knight in shining armor, remember?"

Marin glared at him, but didn't say anything.

"I even brought you a get well gift," Malak said, picking up the bag from the floor and tossing it to her.

"Seriously, who are you and what have you done to Baldie?"

"Hey, stop that!" Malak exclaimed, quickly blocking his mind from her probing. She assumed a disappointed look on her face. "That's not really proper Jedi behavior."

"And disobeying the Council is?" She said, dismissing his disapproval with a wave of her hand.

"I meant what I said earlier, Blondie. Just as soon as you're well enough to walk, I'll make sure you won't be again in at least a week."

"Now there's the Baldie I know," Marin said with a slight grin, then proceeded to examine the bag.

"So," Malak said conversationally as she started to open the bag, "judging by the condition you were in when I found you, I take it you can't walk?"

"Yeah. I learned that the hard way, too. Makes one wish there'd be some damned Medics here to take care of their patients," Marin complained, then stopped opening the bag as she sensed he was pleased to hear this. "Okay, out with it, Baldie. What's in this bag? Dead Gizka? Deralian Shampoo? Living Gizka?"

"Nothing like that," Malak assured, gesturing her to open the bag. When she made no move to do such thing, he shrugged. "It's your uniform."

"My uniform?"

He nodded. She stared at him with a look of complete and utter horror on her face.

"You don't mean the horrid, bright-coloured, standard Republic uniform... do you?"

"That's the one," he said with a huge grin.

"You better hope this is some sick joke, Baldie."

"It's not. The Republic wants us to wear them from now on. Enjoy!" Malak exclaimed cheerily and then fled the room, knowing full well that if Marin had been able to, she would have run after him and beat the crap out of him, or at the least yelled loud enough for people on the other side of the Galaxy to hear her.

Marin looked at the bag with obvious disgust, then opened it and pulled the uniform out to inspect. For the first time, she started hoping she had stayed out of the war. Or if not that, at least died on Dxun. Of course, she thought, it was just like that bastard to save her life just so she'd have to suffer wearing this.