Solo's Jedi ~Poe Dameron/Star Wars ~

Chapter Twenty Three: Anything

"We meet back here in ten minutes, alright? Luce, you take these and spread them over to the left, I'll take the right, Chewie, you go up," Dad planned, handing me a handful of explosives, hitting my arm as he did so, doing the same for Chewie.

I nodded, happy that I was still going to be close to my father. I'd been without him for so long that I just wanted to be near him, even if by near him it meant we were spreading explosives around Starkiller Base.

Some would class this as a suicide mission, but I'd done worse. So had my dad, and Chewie. We were a family based on suicide missions. As I fixed the explosives, I remembered my childhood heroes; Rogue One. Other children had bedtime stories about kings and queens, princes and princesses, I had battle stories, and my favourites were the ones about Rogue One. The brave soldiers, though not all were soldiers, more like a rag-tag team of friends who wanted freedom, or revenge.

When I was fifteen, I led my own suicide mission on a First Order base, though it didn't entail my own suicide; more like the deaths of my friends. Rogue Ten we called ourselves. We thought we were brave and admirable, until our first comrade died, and then we realised we were wrong and naïve. Then it wasn't just a fight for freedom, but I fight to get home. Only myself, Poe and two others survived. We succeeded, and were celebrated despite the fact it was unplanned and was a form of rebellion within the rebellion, but that didn't matter. People had died because of us. We told ourselves it was for the cause and kept moving, like everyone else in the Resistancee.

"Dad," I called, placing the last bomb.

I expected him to be behind me, but he wasn't. I turned around, standing up straighter to look for him, only to see he was stood on the edge of a bridge, watching a dark figure as he crossed. A silhouette I recognised and knew well.

I began to run over to him, heart pounding, the force making me go faster. I reached him, grabbing his hand, his arm, attempting to pull him away but he stood hard, like a rock, unmovable. I didn't understand why he wasn't moving away, he seemed keen for me to leave him behind back on Takodanna.

"Dad, please, he's changed!" I hissed. I finally managed to yank him away from the edge and under the cover of a ledge.

"I promised your mother," he said, almost exasperated, making everything clear. Of course he would forget what he'd said as long as it made my mum happy.

"I promised her something too. That I'd find you and get you home safe," I urged him. "We need to get out of here!"

"We're not leaving your brother, not now we've just placed all those explosives!" He hissed back at me. I did agree with him, I wanted my brother back, but then I remembered that he'd kidnapped Rey, and killed all of our Padawan friends and I felt my heart grow cold.

"You haven't seen your son in seven years, he's changed," I told him, as I slipped my jacket off, undid my shirt slightly, just enough so that I could show him the scar of where his lightsaber had gone through my flesh. "The last time I saw him, he did that to me, and I'm scared he'll do something much worse to me, to you,"

I watched as Dad reached out to touch the scar, tracing over it with his middle finger. As his finger made contact, I flinched, biting my lip as it stung. I saw my father's face turn to concern.

"Still hurts after all these years?" He frowned and I nodded. He sighed as I pulled away, buttoning my shirt again, putting my jacket back on. When I was done, Dad pulled me into a hug, resting his hand on the top of my head. "I love you, Luci, I love you so much, but I still love your brother too, and he needs us,"

With that, he turned away from me and began to walk out to the bridge Ben was crossing. I felt sick; nothing good was going to come out of this situation. I felt every ounce of the force within me pulling to get to my dad, knowing that what he was walking into. My father was a smart man, but Ben and I were people of the force, and he didn't understand how that works. He didn't understand the constant pull we feel in our family, and how I could resist it a lot better than Ben ever could.

I was too far away from the centre of the bridge to hear them talking, but I could see everything, even my brother's face as he took the mask off. At one part, it seemed like Ben was crying, and the pull on my heartstrings almost made me think this wouldn't work out the way the force was telling me it would. A quiet moan from Chewie behind me told me he was thinking the same, but I also knew we both had our hands on our weapons; just in case.

Ben pulled out his lightsaber, and I flinched. The force inside of me told me the way this situation was going to play out and my legs, although shaking with anxiety, began to run to the bridge. I willed myself to move faster, sensing the danger that my father didn't see.

"Dad! Ben!" I called, my voice wavering to the extent it became more of a yelp.

They both turned to face me, Dad looking almost questioning, Ben wearing a glare of contempt towards me. I realised too late my call was a distraction, the distraction Ben needed. I felt all the blood drain from my face as I ran cold, meeting Ben's eyes, which wore a glint of malice, but also fear. Our eye contact lasted, even as he turned the saber on, impaling my father through the chest.

I felt like I was in a trash compactor, the forces of darkness and grief enclosing me tightly. My ears began to ring blanking out all noise, even my own inhuman screams. My heart pumping, like instinct I pulled my blaster out of its holster and aimed for my brother.

But he wasn't my brother. He was a monster. Why did it take this for me to see he was truly lost? Ben was dead, this was Kylo Ren stood in front of me, his blade still in my father, a puppet to Snoke of the dark side.

I began to run, my legs carrying themselves, to the bridge. I needed to get closer. I needed to get to my dad. It was like the force was pulling me in my desperation. However, just as my feet met the bridge, I watched as my father lost balance and fell into the abyss.

I screamed again, an inhuman noise of despair and grief turning into a noise of anger and contempt as I fixed my focus on Kylo Ren stood close to me, who was wearing a small smirk of achievement.

"So good of you to join us, dear sister!" He called to me, pointing his lightsaber at me.

"Id rather die than be your sister," I spat at him, aiming my blaster at the shoulder holding the saber and taking a shot.

My shot knocked him back slightly, but it also led to the surrounding storm troopers taking shots at me. As quick as a flash, I whipped my own lightsaber out and deflected all of their shots away, the occasional one hitting Kylo Ren in front of me. They clearly weren't fatal, as he remained standing, even Chewie's bowcaster couldn't injure him fatally, only making him keel over.

When I turned to look at Chewie, I saw Finn and Rey above me, Rey looking almost as broken as myself, Finn holding onto her shoulders as she cried. I felt a sinking feeling in my gut as I realised they knew now, about my brother, and then pushed it away. It didn't matter anymore. The man who'd done this evil deed wasn't my brother, he was dead with my father too.

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Word count: 1400

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