032. I THINK IT HAS RABIES
∘₊✧───────────────────────────✧₊∘
"Any word from Evangeline?" Finn asked Poe as he stepped out of one of the containment cells.
Poe nodded his head, "She says she's on her way back to the ship."
"So, she found her?"
Poe shook his head, "No, said she ran into some trouble."
"Wonderful," Finn said, "Now this feels like one of our plans."
"You two are a long way from home," a voice spoke from the shadows.
"I thought you said we were alone down here," Finn whispered.
"I did," Poe replied in a harsh whisper, "BB-8 said that there was one guard on the detention cell level and we knocked him unconscious."
Despite only leaving the ship as a group of three, apparently there had been stowaways they hadn't noticed. However, when the sloppily painted droid rolled up while they were struggling to explain themselves to the trooper they had run into, Finn didn't refuse the help. He was frustrated though the moment they cleared things up and realized that Evangeline had left the group. Rather than waste time searching for her, they had reluctantly decided to continue the original mission. The sooner they located the witch, the sooner they could relocate. At least she had kept her commlink on her in case she needed to contact them.
"Well apparently he missed someone," Finn retorted.
"Come out with your hands up," Poe turned toward the figure in the dark, raising his blaster.
"What happened to not engaging the enemy?"
"I technically haven't engaged yet."
Finn shot him an unamused look as the figure walked out of the shadows. She wore a long cloak, but did not have the hood pulled up over her head. Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she approached them unafraid. She was unarmed, but she refused to follow Poe's instructions to raise her arms.
Finn raised an eyebrow, "Do you think that could be her?"
Poe shrugged, "Could be... I was expecting an old hag though."
She glared.
"If she's a prisoner, then why is she just walking around?" Finn asked uncertain.
"Everyone's prison looks different," the witch interjected and pointed at Finn, "You wear yours now."
Poe put his blaster away, "Well this was easier than expected."
"Dameron?"
"I spoke too soon," Poe said as he quickly turned around to face General Hux who stood at the other end of the hallway, "Hugs! Good to see you. No hard feelings right?"
Hux frowned and spat venomously, "The Supreme Leader will reward me for your capture."
As the general reached for his commlink, Finn scrambled to pull his blaster from its holster. The last thing they needed was more stormtroopers, Evangeline would certainly have enough of them on her heels by the time they returned to the ship. However, it was only after he hastily fired that he realized he had forgotten to check whether the blaster was set to stun. The laser shattered a lightbulb near Hux's head. Hux dropped his communications cylinder in surprise.
"Wow," Poe looked amazed, "So all stormtroopers just have terrible aim."
"Shut up," Finn stated between grit teeth as he switched the blaster to stun and fired again.
This time he managed to hit his target as Hux collapsed to the ground. He'd been in the middle of alerting security after he picked his comm back up from the ground. Why the general of all people was on the prisoner detainment level was beyond him, but nothing about the First Order seemed to make much sense anymore.
"We should be going," the witch said as she walked over Hux's unconscious body, "Reinforcements will be here soon."
She wasn't wrong. It wasn't long before they were sprinting down the halls in an attempt to avoid the barrage of blaster fire. Although old, the witch certainly wasn't frail as she managed to stay ahead of them the entire time. BB-8 joined them just outside the hangar. Several chirps that could be translated as confused complaints could be heard, but Finn ignored them to focus on getting back to the shuttle alive. The operation hadn't gone as smoothly as hoped, but it had certainly gone better than expected when they managed to escape in one piece.
Once they entered hyperspace, he relaxed. He leaned back in his seat, took a deep breath of relief, and closed his eyes before prying the trooper helmet off of his head. However, he just about jumped out of his skin when he opened his eyes. The witch practically had her face pressed up against his.
"What's your deal?"
"What?" Finn tried to back away.
"Relax, Finn," Poe hollered from the cockpit before playfully adding, "She won't bite. Just let her smell you and she'll be on her way."
"She's not an animal, Poe," Finn frowned but kept a wary eye on the witch.
The witch slowly backed away and whispered just so that Finn could hear, "He's wrong."
"About what?" Finn raised an eyebrow.
She grinned, "I do bite."