Will of the Many~ Poe Dameron

Still

The air felt different to her. Less pure. More polluted. She knew Kijimi was a dirty planet, but without her connection to the Force, there wasn't much else aside from the grime and steam.

For most of her life, she understood the Force as something that connected her to everything else. It flowed through her and out into the universe. It tied people to the plants and the buildings and the stars. It was all one under The Force. 

But as she entered the room and saw Rey, Poe, and Finn with Babu and the droids, she felt nothing. There was no pull toward Rey or sense of comfort around Poe. All she felt was a stillness. A silence that daringly taunted her. 

She swallowed and felt the entire weight of the gulp. Was it a mistake? She didn't have time to think back now.  

"Serena-" Poe met her at the bottom steps. "What did you see-"

"There's an incoming Destroyer," she interrupted him as she looked around the room. "Ren is on it."

Rey stood tall to look at her. "He'll know we're here. He'll feel you."

She stopped by Poe and shook her head. "He won't."

Rey reared back. "What do you mean-"

"She severed her connection to the Force," Zorii confessed to Serena's crime. 

The entire room stilled as they looked at her. 

Poe turned his back to the room as he looked at her. "Is that true?" He looked her over for a change but found her entirely the same. "How-"

"Luke did it before," she explained lowly. She looked from the divot pressing between his eyebrows to the worry staining his brown eyes, churning them a near black. "He was able to come back from it."

Poe shook his head as he honed in on her eyes. "No, no, Serena, you-" he stopped as his entire breath left him. He dropped his head and wrapped a rough hand across his forehead. "Kylo Ren wants you dead. You need to be stronger not-" He stopped as she lifted a hand to palm his cheek. 

Her left arm screamed as she held onto him. Without the Force, there was a burden pressing over her. It illuminated the scar across her chest, like a thread of sunlight woven into her flesh. It burned and twisted to remind her of its presence. Lifting her arm only stretched it open, elongating the thread until she was sure it would wrap around her neck and choke her.

But seeing the light brighten Poe's eyes made it all worth it. 

"I need to protect you," she told him. Her thumb pressed into the top of his cheek. "I can fight Kylo Ren whenever he comes, but right now, we have to get out of Kijimi. We have a war to end." She looked over his shoulder at Rey, Finn, then over to Babu with C-3PO. "Babu? How is C-3PO's memory wipe coming along?"

Babu lifted up a small wrench that looked gigantic in his hands. "Yup! Droid is ready!" He slammed the wrench down onto C-3PO's unconscious head. The dud bulbs of his eyes lit an angry red as he hummed to life. "The Emperor's Wayfind is in the Imperial Vault at Delta 3-6, transient 9-3-6-, bearing 3-2 on a moon in the Endor system. From the southern shore... only this blade tells. Only this blade tells-" C-3PO's possessed voice cut, then the red died in his eyes. 

Serena got near goosebumps at the stiff way C-3PO powered down. 

"The Endor System?" Finn asked. "Where the last war ended?"

Serena rubbed her arms to ward off the goosebumps. "It would make sense if the other Wayfinder was held by a previous Sith. It would have been in their possession during the last war, then when the Star Destroyer went down, the secret of the Siths went down with it..." Serena trailed off as Rey hopped up the stairs beside her. She ignored them all as she ran up to the open door showing the Star Destroyer eclipsing the moon. "Rey? What is it?"