Ekos 18 - Fegefeuer

Posted on Sunday, 2 May 2021 - 1:51pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Neu Reich
Location: Various
Timeline: 2394

ON:

Eyelaya watched Grol. She felt removed from his grief but compassion for it. She looked at the bio bed. So...there was life after death. She looked around feeling weightless like smoke. For a moment she wished to see Adi. As if her mind willed it the scene faded and she stood in a field, the program that Adi had in palace when they took Haru on the picnic. She smiled. Adi would be asleep soon, she didn't know how she knew but she knew.

Adrianna was in and out of consciousness after her last stint of torture. Leopold's lie had been found out and it was Adrianna that had paid the price. Thankfully, she'd been left alone for almost a week between the lie starting and being found out. They had unleashed hell and had enjoyed watching. Apparently it was May already. She had been due her jab, and was facing mother nature's way of reminding her that without science, she was just a woman.

The woman felt weak and wondered if her destiny had been rewritten so that she no longer died by the hands of a strange man, but here at the hands of König. Whether it was consciousness of her mortality fading in and out, she was unsure, but with how broken she felt, the woman was unsure if she cared much about the outcome.

Soon, Adrianna felt a subconscious pull and found herself in the holo, looking at Eyelaya. Ade looked herself over, not even seeing a scratch, burn or bruise on herself. Perhaps afterlife, perhaps dream? Adrianna looked back to Eyelaya and offered a small smile.

Eyelaya smiled. "Adrianna!" She walked over and hugged her friend. "It's good to see you."

Adrianna held Eyelaya tightly, unlike any other time they had hugged. It was filled with emotion, desperation even. The woman needed comfort and to just be held as her fractured soul desired to be mended.

"I've always liked this place." She said looking around. "It's peaceful."

"It looks like a place in France, Earth, I stayed once, Chateau Neuf," Adrianna replied, coming somewhat to her senses. One question was on her lips though, "am I dreaming or am I finally dead?"

Eyelaya laughed, "No you are alive and the Calvary is coming, I'm sure of it." She shrugged. "As for the dead part I think that's me. I think I brought us both here. Astral travel I think it called on your part."

Adrianna looked Eyelaya over, "how did you die? You can't be dead, I need you. You were my first real friend on the ship."

"I will always be your friend. As for how...I don't remember. I remember going to fix something and then I was talking to the commander and then I was watching myself in sickbay."

Adrianna looked confused. If this wasn't an hallucination, she was losing a friend. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Eyelaya walked over to Adi. "I wanted to see you one last time to thank you for being in my life."

Adrianna put her hands softly on Eyelaya's cheeks. Now or never, "you started out as an assignment that was given to me as a query of your heritage. I thought I would kill you in the first five minutes. But after a week, I saw that you were more, much more than that and I discarded the assignment in favour of finding a true friend. You will never be forgotten and you will always be loved."

She smiled and then her eyes filled with tears. "You are the best friend I ever had Adi. I'm sorry I won't be there in person for your wedding but know that I will always be there looking out for you."

Adrianna wiped away Eyelaya's tears with her thumb, almost as if she was her mother. After she lowered her head a little and with a bit of pain in her voice, whispered, "I don't think there will be a wedding."

"There has to be. You two love one another. Draw strength from that like I drew strength from out friendship"

Adrianna looked to Eyelaya's eyes, "you don't understand-- I queried if I was dead for a reason. If you saw me right now, you'd question too." As if the state on visual consciousness heard her, the pair were overlooking Ade. She was laying, face down on the floor in a pool of dried blood, her clothes torn a little, with charring round some parts. Her wrists having blisters on them from where she had tried to pull away. "Eyelaya, I do not have the strength to continue. Both of Leopold's parents hate me. Leopold -- he's lost so much -- I'm sure he's changed, even if he doesn't admit it. But for me -- there's this guard. He's enjoying making an example of me. He knows I'm Intel, but I also humiliated him before we were in prison, so he has it out for me. He does stuff like this, every day. I do not have the strength any longer." Adrianna fell to her knees, doing something she had not before, not to this extent and certainly not in front of someone-- she sobbed. The woman was broken. So, broken.

"I believe in you. Listen Adi...I don't know how I know this but spirits have power. I have to go soon but I want to give you a gift if you will accept it."

Adrianna nodded, silently.

She walked over to the sleeping figure and placed her hands on Adi's shoulder. A warmth and light filled her so bright one had to close one's eyes. When it was over Adi was healed. "You will get through this." She said standing and walking to the Astral form. "I love you my friend." She put her arms around Adi.

Adrianna just held Eyelaya close and didn't want to let go, "don't leave me."

"I can't stay but I'll always be with you in your heart."

"Don't leave me," Ade whispered, begging.

"I'll protect you as much as I can until the cavalry gets there." She pulled back taking Adi's face in her hands and kissing her forehead. "I'll be in your dreams until you are rescued but for now I have to go."

"Please," Adrianna whispered as the astral imagery faded to reality, "don't leave me." The Italian looked up. Whilst still bruised outwardly and injured, her pain seemed a little numbed and she felt energy come back to her.

Adrianna looked to the ceiling, a tear running down her cheek, whispering, "thank you."

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