After the droid had finished patching up Peter, it went back into the suitcase-like form that it previously had. Vorden placed it back in the bag and decided to carry both him and Peter over to the other building which hadn't been destroyed in the struggle between Peter and Ben.
There was no bed in the second building but it was better than staying outside in the heat of the desert. Vorden was currently looking at Peter who was bandaged from head to toe. The little droid had even performed stitches in areas that had an open wound.
Although it wouldn't matter too much once they found someone with a healing ability. They would be able to heal Peter up properly and then there wouldn't be any sign that he had received any damage.
"Did we go too far?" Vorden said to himself.
"Too far, are you kidding me?" Raten said, "You seem to be forgetting that this person basically sent us off to our death."
"Raten, don't you remember why we were created?" Vorden asked. "Perhaps Peter was going through something similar to Sil, and it was only thanks to us that Sil was able to cope with it all. Have some sympathy for Peter."
Just then Peter started to move a little in his sleep, until eventually he opened up his eyes and slowly lifted the top half of his body off the ground. He touched his sides when he noticed he wasn't hurting as bad as before.
"I would move slowly if I were you," Vorden said. "Most likely the robot injected some type of morphine or other painkillers into your body… you probably aren't feeling the pain right now but the hurt is still there. Just lie down and rest for now."
Peter did as he was told and laid back down on the floor. Looking at Vorden's awkward face Peter couldn't tell what he was feeling and started to talk.
"I know you hate me, and you have every right to, but I feel like I need to get something off my chest," Peter said.
Vorden continued to look away, avoiding eye contact, he wanted to seem disinterested even though he was interested in what Peter had to say.
"I didn't choose the school or the bullies over you two like you might be thinking. I chose my family over you two. You see I have an older sister, or maybe I should say: I had an older sister. My family wasn't as rich as you can probably imagine, but they wanted us to have a good life. They saved up every little bit of credits they could and they finally managed to purchase a level three ability book for my sister, just before sending her off to the military. She was the hope of our family and they wanted her to become a decent traveller. But in her second year of military school, she died on an expedition. It was a big shock to us all, but it was an even bigger shock for my parents. It seemed like their life started spiralling down from there. There was no way they could afford another ability book for me. They told me not to worry, not to try and work hard like my sister for fear I would perish as well."
"But I wanted them to lead a better life so when I came here I promised myself I would fill the shoes that my sister once had, the only option left for me was to take the Earth ability from the military and to try and level up by being loyal to the military, the only thing I didn't realize was the crazy things they would ask me to do." As Peter finished his story he let out a sigh of relief, it felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders.
"Sounds like you had a good family," Vorden said. "You should have listened to them, what do you think would happen if you were to die? Trust me they are a lot happier with you alive, no matter what living conditions they were in, rather than you being dead."
Peter then lifted himself from the ground and looked at Vorden.
"I realize that and that's why I said I picked my family over you guys. I didn't mind becoming a builder or something, as long as I would be able to support my family, but then they started targeting me, threatening me on this expedition. I knew what happened to my sister so I thought the same thing would happen to me."
"Was it Earl and his underlings?" Vorden asked.
"How do you know about Earl?" Peter asked.
"I know what they had done to you Peter, and trust me they got what they deserved. I did a lot more than break their fingers and they won't ever bother you again." Vorden said while smiling.
When Peter heard those words there was a strange look in Vorden's eyes, combined with that creepy smile. It was sending a tingle down his spine and all he wanted to do was to get as far away as possible from Vorden.
'Ah, yes I still remember those screams, they were lovely.' Raten said to Vorden.
"No, I mean they were a part of it, but it was someone bigger, someone, near the top."
Vorden then went over and grabbed Peter by the shoulder.
"Who?! Peter tell me! Was it one of the teachers, or even one of the Sergeants maybe? I saw them going into the second year building so I know it has to be someone from that department."
Vorden wanted to make whoever was in charge, pay for this. They had not only targeted him but got others involved as well. He had heard that some military schools were bad but clearly something was amiss in this one. It was different than his brother had described to him.
Peter paused for a second as he was unsure whether he should tell Vorden or not, he knew the second he did Vorden would be involved in this but at the same time it was too hard going through everything alone, Vorden also scared him, he wasn't sure what to do.
Vorden looked at him in a strange way, this made Peter feel scared and made him start to talk. "It was…" Before Peter could answer. Screaming could be heard from outside.
"VORDEN! PETER! QUINN!" Layla shouted at the top of her lungs.
The two of them immediately headed outside and could see Layla being carried by Erin who ice skated through the desert. When the two of them had finally reached their destination, Erin collapsed into the sand and Layla had fallen off her back.
"Are you okay?" Layla asked Erin.
"I just used up all my power, I don't think I can help in the fight," Erin said.
Erin had used up all her strength to get her and Layla out of there as fast as she could. She had managed to create quite the distance between them and the Dalki but she knew she hadn't outrun the enemy. She could still consistently feel the pressure right behind her. When they looked over one of the sandhills they could see a figure coming towards them.
"What happened, are you running from the people who stole the crystals?" Peter asked with a worried expression on his face.
"No, it's a Dalki." Layla said, the fear was written on her face.
*****
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