FN-3043 dashed to his friends who, in turn, sprinted to him as fast as their injured bodies could take them. FN-2358 was the first to tackle him, her laughter filling his ears as he spun her around.

“Double-Three, you’re alive,” she exclaimed in disbelief.

She pulled away from him, held his face in her hands, and kissed both of his cheeks.

FN-3043 was a bit taken aback by the embrace but before he could fully absorb what had just happened a limping FN-1217 wrapped him in a tight bear hug.

“I knew you were going to make it. I just knew it,” Seventeen said.

3043’s smile couldn’t seem to leave his face. He had thought his friends were gone, lost to the casualties of war. Now, they were here hugging him as if nothing had happened.

When Seventeen relinquished the embrace 3043 could only stare at them in slack-jawed wonder.

“How are both of you not dead?” 3043 asked.

FN-2358 smiled as she stroked a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

“I was lucky,” she said.

She raised her shirt to reveal a bandage around her waist.

“My ribs were broken and I had lost a lot of blood but after the medics found me they sent me straight to a bacta tank. I’m good as new.”

FN-3043 looked at FN-1217.

“And you? I saw you fall to your death.”

1217 grinned, flicking his brown locks out of his eyes.

“I did fall but not to my death. I just broke my left ankle but nothing more to it than that.”

3043 began to laugh. His friends were alive. They were truly alive. This wasn’t a dream. This was really happening.

With tears welling in his eyes, he stepped forward and hugged them both again. He would always remember this day as one of the happiest in his life.