Through the Darkness || Finn&Rey

Chapter 55

"How far away are we?"

"forty minutes," I nod.

"Come here," I request and she reluctantly rises and walks over to me, I reach out my hand and she takes it with a shy smile. I tug her down onto my lap and she wraps her free hand around the back of my neck for support. "Are you okay now?" I whisper. Her hair is slowly drying; some parts are lighter than others. She nods and readjusts herself so she is more comfortable.

"Yes,"

"Would you tell me if you weren't?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I think I would," she glances at my lips, then back to my eyes.

"You think?" I lean back a little to observe her whole face. I stare at her neck for a moment, the bruises have faded so much and it brings me a lot of ease.

She hums quickly before she closes the space between us and starts to kiss me. I fight it for a moment before I melt into her and pull her close. Letting my mind forget about what we may face, and giving myself entirely to her. I hold her as I lay myself down onto the couch, Rey on top of me. She readjusts so she can party straddle my waist, partly mirror my body.
The small couch obviously isn't designed for this, and suddenly a feeling of guilt overcomes me.
"Rey," I mumble her name between kisses and she puts her hand on the seat on the couch, by my head, and pushes herself up to look at me.
"This doesn't feel right," I confess and she is confused for a moment before she gives me a knowing look.

"Han?" She asks quietly and I nod, she kisses my forehead.
"He may have been old, but he would have been young at one time, and-" she leaves closer to me and whispers: "In love," her words slip through my body like water down a stream, filling me. Without hesitation (pushing away the thought that we are disrespecting his memory), I grab hold of her pale cheeks and bring her back against me. My lips latch onto hers; if someone else was here they'd believe that I can't breathe without her. Maybe they would be right.

The moment her tongue starts begging for mine I don't waste time in opening my lips for her and taking control. I hold onto her hips, so she is stable, but also so I can roll them lightly against mine. She has one hand in my hair and the other is running down my chest. She fiddles with the hem on my shirt and slips her hand under, her cold fingers make my hips buck slightly. She kisses me deeply as she grasps onto my waist. I assume she would say she is holding me like this so she won't slip off, but I notice the way she digs her fingers in when she moans my name.

The control beeps but Rey ignores it, so I do too.
I loosen my grip so I can rub my hands up her waist and back down to her hips, I feel her shiver and smile into our warm kiss.
The monitor beeps again and Rey groans in frustration, and when she reluctantly shifts I take my hands from her and let her awkwardly get off me. I put my arms behind my head and watch her sit in the pilot seat.

She presses a few buttons, "I forgot to redirect the booster fuel into the thrust engines," she grumbles. I think she is about to come back to the couch but she walks over to her bag which is near the door. She takes out some clean white cloth and her tunic. Regardless of my eyes on her she removes her clothes and replaces them with the ones I first met her in. She wraps the cloth up her arms perfectly, and I wonder how many times she has done that in the past. She puts on some small fingerless gloves to help her grip I assume, and clips her lightsaber to her belt. She shoves her clothes back into the bag. She looks up and meets my eye, with a look of extreme exhaustion, her shoulders slump under an immense weight. So I open my arms to welcome her back. She slowly walks up to me and around the table. She basically collapses onto me and wraps both her arms under me, hugging my waist and she rests her head on my chest. She closes her eyes as I hold her in place, she must be exhausted, it's been a long day. My eyes feel heavy as I finally fall to the bottom of the adrenaline high I was on.

We both wake to sound of the engines rerouting as we come out of Lightspeed. Rey is alert and quick to scurry out of my grip; whereas I am sluggish and weighed down will sleep.
She has already switched off autopilot and is flying the ship into D'Qar's gloomy atmosphere by the time I sit in the co-pilot seat. She glances at me with an intense expression that holds too many emotions to comprehend. She heaves the lever forward.
She pilots us through the dark of night, and towards the Base. I hear the roar of the Resistance X-Wings before I see them. We come over a rise and we are blinded by the lights to the Base, the floodlights have lit every runway and the tarmac shines, it is almost as clear as if it was day. I look down and am surprised when I see a flood white armour glowing under the large florescent lights. Large groups run down the tarmac, blasters loaded, some fire, others head in different directions, surrounding the Base.

"Stormtroopers?" I half ask, yet I can see them clearly. I do not understand how, the First Order so easily rebuilt their ranks, and I wonder for the first time if Starkiller wasn't their only base. "Hux always thought that a Clone army was more efficient," I add quietly, partly to myself. Maybe he always had one waiting.

"He must have fixed the ship after we left him on the island," Rey raises her eyebrows and I shrug. I wasn't aware they had left him on Luke's secluded island.

"I guess he must have, because I don't know who else would be leading them," I admit. Mixing with the X-Wings is the all too familiar high pitched whistle of TIE fighters. The sound coaxes my body into action, and the unwelcome, but necessary flow of adrenaline floods my system.

Without warning I rush out of the cockpit. I don't need to tell Rey - and she doesn't have to ask - where I am going, because she knows.

TheResistance fixed the weapons system and unlocked the gun from its forwardposition. With it fully operational, I man it and grab hold of the controller.My hands firm and my focus unwavering, I pivot and swirl the weapon around towarm it up before I target on a TIE fighter that is unaware of our presences.Lasers shoot out from the gun perfectly timed to collide with the fuel storageunit, causing it to catch fire and subsequently explode.
My adrenaline is channelled so that every shot I fire is intentional and servesits purpose.

Rey flies us through sparks and fire and as we emerge that's when I see him. Iknow it is him, even though it is dark and occasionally glary, and it notbecause of the detailing on his X-Wing. He's the best damn pilot in theresistance. He skilfully manoeuvres Black One through the air, I flicker myeyes between him, the battlefield and the targeting monitor in front of me. Ishoot a laser at a group of Stormtroopers using a hanger as protection before theyare able to ambush a pilot about to board her X-Wing.
I force back on Blacker leader as he stalls his engines to confuse a fighterhot on his trail. I see the small orange and white head of BB-8 whizzing around,and I assume passing vital information to his comrade. Suddenly he thrusts theX-Wing vertically into the air and flips behind the TIE Fighter, shooting itdown with ease.
I look back at the monitor and I target onto the large Resistance defencecannon that is already targeted onto the Falcon. Rey skilfully tries tomanoeuvre us away, but the barrel follows us.
"Finn..." Rey's loud and worrisome call echoes through the corridors and down tome.

"Already got it, babe," I call back. Just as I fire the lasers, the cannonreleases its ammunition. They must beinside, taking control of our defences and using them against us, Iconclude silently.
I glance back at Black Leader to witness an oncoming assault, from two TIE fightersand another corrupt Resistance cannon. I am too slow to position the Falcon's weaponbefore two missiles collide into Black One, sending it spiralling out ofcontrol. His burning X-Wing ignites the tops of the trees as Poe crashes to theforest floor.