Charisma~ Poe Dameron

The Start of the End

Aria's hair stood on end as the air around her was filled with an electricity. She drove her lightsaber through it just to hear its crackle. The wind brushed through the treetops ahead, and she felt the breeze kiss her arms and legs. 

Through the breeze, she heard a small hum, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled. She turned on the thin rope and raised the saber to block the droid's laser. She backtracked on her toes to the middle of the deep drop. She kept her left arm straight out to hold balance as she moved the lightsaber in her right arm to deflect another shot. 

As she blocked the third shot, she pushed off the rope and threw herself into the air, spinning feet over head until she landed on solid ground. She took the helmet off and set it on the ground next to her, then turned in her crouched position and took off into the thick of the woods. 

She wove through the heavy forestry, navigating the trees as though she was walking through them instead of sprinting. Her arms pumped by her sides, the lightsaber cutting through the air with each raise of her arm. 

The familiar hum of the droid sounded off behind her, and she dropped her saber to switch her hold on it, grabbing it upside down she moved it behind her back to block another shot from the trailing droid. 

She didn't have to look at the droid to know where its shots intended to land. Without thought, her body moved to protect itself. 

When she caught a flash of red among the lower tree branches, she kicked up from the ground to propel herself towards the limbs. She grabbed onto a thick tree branch, then she swung her legs up to roll through the air. As she barrel rolled, she held her lightsaber out and sliced a piece of the red ribbon from the neighboring tree. 

As she fell back to the ground, she landed on her knees and snatched the floating ribbon before it touched the ground. 

With the fabric in hand she turned to sprint back the way she came. Instead of using the rope like before, she ran towards a fallen tree overlapping the drop and jumped from the decaying end of it. 

She soared high into the air before landing swiftly on the other side of the valley. She didn't waste a breath as she took off at a sprint through the trail. 

R-8 gave a beep of encouragement as he followed after her. 

"Keep up!" Aria teased him as she jumped over a log. 

The training droid fired off two consecutive shots aimed straight for the back of Aria's calves. She felt the heat of the lasers before they closed in on her, and the warning gave her just enough time to jump off the trunk of a tree, throw herself into the air, spiral, and cut the droid in half with one swoop of her lightsaber. 

The droid fell in two separate parts, and Aria landed gracefully just behind it. She let out a breath and looked down in triumph. Tiny sparks shot out from the innards of the droid, then cut as it lost power. 

R-8 gave a distasteful beep as he rolled up to the destroyed droid. 

"Don't worry, R-8." Aria bent down and gave his gray belly a pat. "I won't slice you in half. This guy-" She nodded towards the droid. "Is meant to be cut in half." She wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not, but R-8 seemed to believe her, and that was all she cared about. 

"Aria?" 

She lifted her head to see Poe trudging through the woods. It was the first time he had intentionally sought her out in a week, so she jumped up to meet him. She killed her saber and clipped it to her belt with a trained ease. "Hey," she gave a breathless smile as she swiped at her bangs to make sure they were laying flat. Her cheeks were sun kissed and hair tangled with all the wind, but she looked more alive and happy than Poe had seen her in weeks.