Project Boussh: Datacard Revealed by Alison Sky Dia watched as Face floated in the bacta tank on the Red Home's med bay. She knew it was selfish of her to be here while the others still fought for control of the ship. But yet Elassar had told her that he would call if needed, and that she was transferred to guard duty. Face was drugged into unconsciousness, and the med team had said that he would only be in there for an hour or two, since all he suffered was a concussion and a few minor scrapes and burns. While she waited, fidgeting on the cot beside the tank, her hand played over the sides of the datacard that she still held. In the last hour, since Face had been hurt and brought on board, Dia had been making a mental inventory of her memories. As far as she knew, they were all there again. She could remember her years as the slave, her time right before joining the New Republic, and all the way to the present. So, she had her memory back...and Alison wasn't anywhere around to tell her what was on the disc. She quickly flagged down the next med officer that walked by. "Do you have a private room with a disc reader nearby?" _Dia, first off, let me say that I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen..._ Dia sat back in the chair of the med officer's room. In front of her, she had the projector. A tiny holo of Alison stood on the desk before her. Even though the image flickered, an effect from hasty recording on an astromech, Dia could make out the pain on Alison's face and from that and her opening words, it made Dia shiver in fear. _...I'm not sure if you've learned yet what happened to Face after he was kidnapped in California. Days later he was found in New Hampshire, a test subject from a man named Retsim. They had inserted a chip into his head, making him see all of us as enemies, and was on a mission to destroy us..._ Dia's hand came up to her mouth in shock. That wasn't possible. Face wouldn't let someone turn him against his friends... _...He captured myself, along with Emily, Hobbie and Ooryl, and sent us to Retsim's lab to become the next subjects. However, we were able to escape. Face, meanwhile, was captured in the woods by the cabin. If I estimate correctly, this would be around the time that you had your accident on the Home..._ Quickly Dia thought back. She remembered hearing that they were going to get Face from the surface, right before the Home was attacked. From her memory loss, she had forgotten that. _...In transit from New Hampshire to Atner's castle, Mike and Sharon from Terra Group helped release Face from this predicament and remove the chip from his head. But he had changed from all this, Dia, as had I. I didn't trust him anymore, and he needed someone to trust him. We fought, Dia. And not just words, but with fists..._ Why is she telling me this, Dia wondered. She could feel her hands becoming fists, feeling anger now at the words that Alison was saying. What had she done to Face? _...When we reached the castle, we had it out, and after a personal battle on the cliffs outside the castle, we finally came to terms with everything. Then he did something I wasn't expecting. He saved my life. He saved my life in more ways than one. He kept me alive with hope that we would be rescued after I was beaten by Atner. He stunned me into submission when I would not go into a batca tank for my wounds..._ Alison's face dropped, and Dia felt that shiver of fear coming back into her spine. _...And he saved me again as I drowned in that bacta tank from fear. But in doing that, we made a mistake. We both found that trust in each other that we had been needing, and something more. We needed each other, and found it in each other's arms..._ Dia jumped up and pounded her fists on the table. "How could you?!" she screamed at the holo that had fallen silent naturally. "You were my friend!" Almost as an answer, Alison's holo looked up again from the spot on the floor she had been focusing on. _...I know you're angry with me now, but I didn't mean for it to happen. Face needed to be consoled, needed to be held. Somehow, he saw a reflection of you in me, and he grabbed onto that, taking me along for the ride..._ _I won't say that I regret what happened, because when things happen, they happen for a reason. I was feeling horrible as well about my life, and with this, Face made me see that I couldn't give up...that there were things to fight for..._ Alison was keeping her tears back, Dia could see. Slowly, the anger started to fade out of her, filled with sympathy and sadness. She could see, even in the holo image, that whatever had happened affected the stubborn woman in more ways than anyone else would know. And the fact that she was confessing it all to Dia...Why WAS she confessing it all to her? _Dia, I doubt you will ever be able to forgive me. I broke the trust that you and I had while you were injured. But I just want you to know that what I did I did to help Face. Where we went and what we did...I can't explain why that happened more than it was the beginning of a healing process for both of us._ _If you're watching this, that means that I'm not there. Please, don't hate Face for what happened. He needs you right now, just as you need him. He won't tell anyone about what happened while he was with Retsim. But whatever it was, it's eating away at him._ _He needs you, Dia. And no matter what happened between the two of us, nothing replaced you in his heart. He still loves you, and always will. Don't hold our moment of weakness against him, especially when he needs you the most._ Alison looked up at something out of screen. _It's time for the battle now, so I have to end this. But inside Face is another battle, one that he can't fight from his X-Wing alone. He needs his friends...he needs you. He loves you. Please don't abandon him now._ The holo ended, and for a few minutes Dia stared at the space in which Alison's form had just been moments ago. Then, wiping the tears that had fallen from her eyes, she got up, pocketed the data disc, and went off back to med bay. As she got to the tank room, she saw that Face was no longer floating in his tank. She walked down the hallway to where the showers were, and saw Face, his boxers still on, sitting in the corner of the shower. His head was pulled in-between his knees, and she saw that his shoulder rose and fell as if he was crying. "Face?" Face looked up quickly, seeing Dia at the edge of the washroom. The shower had spiked his few days of hair growth, and his eyes were red. He wiped his arm across his eyes and tried to recover himself in front of her presence, but Dia walked right into the shower and knelt down beside him. Dia took her hand and laid it beside his cheek. "I'm here," she said, and kissed him.