Chapter 66 - Consequences of Killing

Once she got back to her cell, Aero had a medical droid come in to fix up her back and shoulder. She would have refused, but her they really hurt. The droid wrapped it in bacta patches and left. It didn’t help much. As the droid left and Ash sat back down against the wall, a hologram of Aero came up in the middle of the room again.
“That was very impressive. When it comes to your physical skill you by far pass even me. But now it is time for your first real test. Your mental test.”
Ash’s heart dropped. She knew he was going to make her do something crazy.
“What is it?” Ash mumbled.
“One of your friends will die in the next 5 minutes,” Aero paused and Ash’s heart dropped.
Please don’t make me pick, she thought.
“And you get to decide who,” Aero finished.
“Don’t make me choose….please,” Ash begged. “I will do anything but that.”
“It’s too late. You’ve already said that you were under my control. You have five minutes to decide, or I will kill them all.”
As Aero started to turn off the holocomm, Ash pleaded, “PLEASE!! PICK ME!! KILL ME!!”
Aero didn’t listen and turned the hologram off. Ash slumped down to her knees and began to cry. She couldn’t talk to her friends, but she could look at them. The images of them were still on her walls. How could she possibly do this? Known of them knew what was going on and would never know that it was here that ordered the termination of their life, but she would have to live with that burden all her life. And to make it worse, Aero would probably force her to watch. She couldn’t bare that. She would rather kill herself.
Then Aero came back up on the holodevice.
“It hasn’t been 5 minutes yet!” Ash screamed in tears.
“Oh I know, I just forgot to tell you something. You will be the one personally killing them.”
Ash screamed at him. She got off her feet and ran to the hologram like she could attack him right there. But she just ran right through it. She tried to reach out to him in the Force, but he must have been to far away right now. The hologram fizzled out and Ash was alone again, until Echo’s voice popped into her head.
Pick me, she said.
What? How do you-
I have a plan. Pick me. Pretend to kill me by pretending to use shatterpoint on my head. I can stop my heart rate and breathing to make it seem like I’m dead. Then you won’t have to worry about this.
Are you sure this will work? Ash said.
No…but it’s our only chance. Besides, if it doesn’t work it won’t matter because they’ve already injected me with a deadly poison. Maybe this will wipe the poison from my system, Echo said and withdrew from her mind, not leaving Ash much time to respond.
Don’t forget to act like you have no idea what is going on, Ash said as quickly as she could.
Ash started to sob. Her sister was probably going to die anyway. Maybe this plan would work. But on the other hand…maybe not. There was no way of knowing. They just had to trust in the Force, and right now this felt like the right path to take.
She hated though to even think about pretending to kill her sister and she might die because of that. But it was her only choice. Echo was right. No matter how much it pained her to say this to Aero, she had too.
This time, Aero surprised her. He actually came into her room and stood in front of her. She wanted Echo to hear this, so she opened up her mind as much as she possibly could to her so she could hear what Aero was saying. She hoped it worked.
Aero stepped in and looked at her sitting on the ground.
“Your decision?” he asked.
Ash, in tears replied, “Echo.”
Aero looked shocked, but yet happy.
“That was an unexpected surprise. I would have never expected that you would pick your own sister, your own flesh and blood.”
“Ya…can we just get on with it?” Ash said wiping a tear from her face.
“Of course,” Aero said. “Come with me.”
Aero grabbed her by the arm and led her out the door. It was only a couple minutes to her cell where Echo was being held. When she opened the door it opened more into a small medical room. Computers surrounded the walls and medical trays were spread out everywhere. In the center of the room lay Echo on a medical cot. She wasn’t even strapped down, and Ash knew why just by looking at her.
Her sister had turned a lighter blue and had deep gashes on her arms and legs, along with needle punctures all over her. Her sister was in pain…a lot of pain. Ash almost started crying just looking at her.
On the wall in front of Echo were two screens, one with Xiang and the other with Kiro on it. Both guys were in electronic cuffs hanging from a wall. Both guys looked tired and hanging on the bridge of unconsciousness, but they were being forced to stay awake to watch this. Suddenly a deep pit formed in Ash’s stomach. She didn’t know Aero was also making Kiro and Xiang watch. He was going to make her friends hate her.
“I never agreed to have Xiang and Kiro watch,” Ash whispered to him.
“What’s the fun in that?” Aero said smiling. Ash wanted to punch him out right now, but that would only make things worse. Ash just turned back towards her sister’s cot and continued walking. She stood next to her and ran her hand through her sister’s hair.
“I’m…so…sorry,” Ash began. She didn’t have to act because she was already in tears.
“Sorry about wh-what?” Echo opened her eyes and stuttered. It sounded like she was in major pain.
“You’ll see.”
Aero, standing on the other side of Echo’s cot, looked at Ash.
“Now is the time,” he said and handed her a lightsaber. Ash pushed it aside.
“No…I wouldn’t dare. My sister, my rules.”
“You’re not doing what I think you’re doing?” Xiang mumbled from the screen.
“What in bl-blazes is going on!?” Echo said weakly.
“Just stop talking and relax. It will make this easier for both of us.”
Aero glared at her.
“What are you going to use then?” he asked confused.
Ash took in a deep breath.
“I can use shatterpoint,” she said, trying to avoiding using the word ‘will’. “It will literally make her brain explode inside her head.”
“ASH! DON’T!! Kiro yelled.
Echo gasped. Even thought she was week, her voice was loud.
“WHAT? You’re going to KILL me?!”
“I had no other choice!” Ash yelled back. She thought they were doing a pretty good job acting. Even Echo was starting to cry now. And because Xiang and Kiro didn’t know what was going on it just made it more convincing.
“Go ahead Ash. Make me proud.”
“Don’t ever say that,” Ash shot back. She may just be acting to kill her sister, but that made her mad. She could feel the hatred in her own voice.
“Ash, don’t!! You don’t h-h-have to do this!” Echo screamed.
Ash started too choked on her own words and kept streaking her hand through Echo’s hair. “I’m…sorry. I love you sister.”
Echo looked around helplessly. She was too weak to move and Ash could feel her pain.
“Wait! I just n-n-need to say something,” she said. Ash was a tad surprised.
“Xiang, I love you!” Echo yelled. “It doesn't matter how many times I tell you I don't, I do and I always will! If I die I wanted you to know that! I'm just glad she chose me over you! I don't know what I could do without you!"
Over and the screen, Xiang began to sob and yell at them. Ash didn’t know that he knew so many cuss words. Almost as many as her.
Ash tried to ignore him and just put the thought into her mind that hopefully he would understand later.
Ash started to slowly move her hands towards Echo’s head. Echo was mumbling ‘no’ the whole time. She was balling. Ash was too. She really hoped Echo didn’t kill herself trying to save them all.
Ash couldn’t stand waiting anymore and grabbed hold of her sister’s head. Ash really wasn’t doing anything than just jerking and jinking her hands around and crying and screaming, but Echo was playing her part to the full. She managed a blood-curdling scream that made you want to die. She was shaking so violently than Ash had a hard time holding onto her sister. Even though she was weak, she was an amazing actor. Behind her she heard Xiang and Kiro screaming at her to stop. She wanted so badly for them to know the truth, but it might jeopardize their success.
Now Echo was shaking so violently that she actually fell off the medical table. Ash took her hands off Echo’s head and caught her as she fell. Ash sat on the floor and Echo lay in her arms and her eyes rolled back into her head. No it was time for Ash to really play her part.
“NOOO!!” Ash screamed. “ECHO!! ECHO!!”
Echo’s pulsed slowed to a stop and her breathing was nonexistent. Ash put her head on Echo’s and began to sob. Ash couldn’t feel her own sister in the Force and she was holding her in her arms. She didn’t know if that was good or bad. But it did make her cry even more. Her sister could be gone for good.
Behind her Xiang screamed.
“You killed her!!” Xiang screamed. “You killed your own sister!!”
“No, you don’t get it-“ Ash started to say but Xiang cut her off.
“NO! You killed Echo!” Xiang screamed. He was crying. “You and you only…I’ll…I’ll never forgive you.”
“No…no…you don’t understand!! I-I-“ Ash stuttered and looked over to Kiro.
He was just shaking his head with a shocked look on his face.
“Don’t try to explain anything,” he said. “It’s pretty clear what you just did. You’ve changed…you’ve turned dark.”
“Just shut up!!!” she yelled at Kiro. She couldn’t hold it in any longer. She was tired of hearing it…hopefully he would understand later.
Ash was heart broken. She hated being yelled at for a big misunderstanding, and she hated to yell at people. She was still holding her sister. She stroked her hand one more through her sisters hair and just sat there holding her cold, dead, lifeless body.
“Well done,” Aero said. “I believe you’ve just also passed your Force skills test. I’ve never seen anyone use an ability like that.”
“And you’ll never see it again,” Ash said with a hint of anger in her voice. “You just forced me to kill my sister…what more could you possibly want from me!?”
“I want power and you can help me achieve it.”
“I hope that was worth sacrificing my sister for,” Ash said. Now her eyes were dry and there was a certain hardness to her voice. She needed Aero to think that she wanted revenge.
“You will pay…one way or another,” Ash said.
“You wouldn’t dare because I hold the lives of your other friends. You wouldn’t dare sacrifice them too.”
Ash glared at him.
“Just take me back to my room,” she said harshly.
“Of course.”
Ash stood up with her sister in her arms and laid her back on the medical table.
Aero motioned over for Juro to take her back. Ash just now noticed that Juro was in the room. She was guided out the door, Xiang was yelling at her the entire time.
“You killed her!! You, Ash!! You’re the only one responsible!!! You’ve ruined my life forever!!”
But there was one thing that really caught her attention, something that Kiro yelled.
“I don’t love you anymore,” he said simply.
Ash almost dropped to her knees. She really hoped that Kiro would take those words back when this was all over.

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