Poe woke up with a splitting headache and a pain shooting down his side. His entire body throbbed, and he couldn't pinpoint one exact spot of pain- it all hurt.
His head hurt so bad he winced as a droplet of sweat slowly cascaded down the wrinkle between his eyebrows. It accumulated more moisture and sped up until it dropped off the tip of his nose. He could feel every drop of sweat as it trailed down his face, and what didn't drip off evaporated before it could.
When he finally opened his eyes he had lift a hand to eclipse the bright, overpowering sun before it fried all the moisture in his eyes. Still, the sun shined around his hand and made it nearly impossible for him to see anything. Even the blue, cloudless sky above had a white sheen to it from the sun.
Poe waited for his eyes to naturally adjust. As he did, he licked his overly dry lips to relieve the pain, but his mouth proved just as dry. His tongue scraped along the cracks in his lips. What little moisture the motion gave off evaporated immediately under the sun's heat.
Poe gave a groan as he pushed himself up and looked around him. In every direction he saw sand... nothing but sand and hills and more sand.
"Great." His voice broke from lack of use and moisture.
He lifted himself out of the TIE fighter and jumped down to the soft ground. His feet began to sink down as the wind piled more sand on top of him.
He stepped away from his cockpit to look at the back of it- but there was no back of it.
"FINN!" Despite the lack of water and the throbbing in his voice, he shouted for his partner- for the man who saved him from certain death. "FINN!" He cupped his hands around his mouth to project his voice.
He turned in circles as he looked for any sign of life, but the desolate world around him made him feel more alone than ever.
Poe dropped his hands from his mouth and let them hang loosely by his sides. He was alone. Truly, and regrettably alone.
Still, the loss of a friend couldn't deter him from the mission at hand. He had to either find BB-8 or get back to base where he can gather the rest of his team and come back with reinforcement.
So, despite the possibility that Finn was still out there somewhere, Poe walked away.
And he kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
As the sun started to lower, he saw what he thought was a mirage in the distance. That was the only explanation he could come up with that would explain the small village made of tented shops with billowing fires. He could have sworn the town was just a byproduct of his brain frying, but then he smelled burnt meat and his mouth filled with juicy, warm saliva. It was the first bit of moisture he had all day, so even though it was his own body fluids, he lapped it up like it was fresh from a spring.
Poe found a new strength as he pushed himself towards the smell of food and sound of numerous voices. He stumbled his way past a few tents, then collapsed in front of someone he thought would speak English- or at least one of the other twenty languages he had picked up across the galaxy.
"I need... help." He breathed out as he sweated out the last bit of water he had in his system. His shoulders slumped as he pleaded desperately on his knees. His curly hair clung to his face and his tan shirt had darkened to a brown from his sweat soaking through it.
"Oh boy- you look absolutely parched!" Poe looked up to see the robust woman grab a bowl from her table and lower it to him.Poe didn't know what was in the bowl, but he still took it and pressed it to his lips. As he tilted it up, the sweet, sweet water poured down his throat and overflowed the sides of his mouth and drippled off his chin. If he thought his own saliva was like drinking from a fresh spring, the water in the bowl was like the drippings of water from an untouched icicle on Hoth.
It was heaven-sent. And Poe didn't stop until every last drop made its way down his throat. When the bowl was empty he dropped it and sucked in a giant breath. Excess water dripped from his chin and mixed with the sweat soaked through his shirt.
He sucked in several long, savored breaths as he looked back up at the kind woman. "I need... a transport." He looked at the people surrounding her in case they could help. "I'm willing to buy whatever you got." Poe knew he couldn't find BB-8 on his own, not with how he was right then. He needed his team. He needed to get back to D'Qar.
"I can take you where you need-"
"No," Poe cut off a Archillade, a lizard-type man with yellow eyes uncomfortably far apart on his green, scaly face. "Where I need to go... no one else can follow." He was being vague, but he couldn't give them the location of the Rebel base. He already failed the galaxy by giving up the location of the map, he couldn't add something else on top of it. "Please..."
"From the looks of it pal... you ain't got nothing that we'd want."
"Hey! You gotta pay for that water!" An oversized slug with wings flew out from behind a stove inside the tent. He had a dirty apron tied around his lower half, but it didn't prevent the rest of him from getting greasy.
"What?" Poe stood to his feet as the flying slug closed in on him.
"You drink it- you buy it!" The slug flew so close to Poe he could smell the dirty grease layered on his slimy skin. "You pay or I'll take something-" His bright green eyes lowered to the necklace dangling over Poe's shirt.
Poe lifted a hand to clasp his fist around the ring. He shook his head as he stumbled back a few steps. He would never let anyone get his mother's ring... not while he was alive.
"Come on, boy, just give him something!" The woman who gave him the water laughed from behind them.
Poe stumbled further into the town to escape the bug and the laughing bandits behind him.
"Get lost, thief!"
Poe turned around and used every bit of strength he had to put some distance between him and the bug.
All other shops were closed or closing, and everyone he ran into turned their backs to him. Even when he tried to grab on to them, they simple shrugged him off.
Poe's hope was dwindling, and with his already crushed morale for what he had done, he thought it was all coming to an end.
It was just him, alone, on a desert planet with nothing but sand and crushed dreams.
And.... lonely small vessels just outside of the town.
Poe's faith grew as he looked at the ships just waiting for their pilots to come back. He knew it wasn't right and he was stranding someone on Jakku, but he had to get back to D'Qar. The entire Galaxy depended on him getting back to his base so he can continue on his mission.
So, even though it went against his moral code, he made his way towards the closest vessel.
He climbed into the cockpit and closed it before anyone saw him. He looked around the switches of the unfamiliar T-wing. It was small and there were several joysticks, but Poe had already proved he could fly anything.
It took two switches to start up the engines, and another third switch before his thrusters pointed down so he could fly up.
He slowly started to climb when he saw the man woman who offered him the water come running towards her vessel.
Poe swore as he quickened his climb. "I'm sorry." He muttered to her as he lifted the joysticks back simultaneously to point himself up, then he put all his power into the thrusters to break through the atmosphere of Jakku.
When he was clear of Jakku, he set his coordinates for D'Qar and put himself into hyper space.
It was only a few hours later he lowered himself just outside of the hangar. His unknown vessel drew in the attention of the guards and he was met with raised pistols and shouts.
"SHOW YOURSELF!"
"STATE YOUR BUSINESS!"
Poe slowly pushed the glass dome up and raised himself from his seat. He had to squint against the sun as he looked down to see not only the guards, but General Leia standing behind them to investigate.
"It's me- Poe!" He lifted his empty hands to show he meant no harm. "Poe Dameron!"
"Lower your weapons." Leia stepped between the guards as she approached Poe's ship. Poe climbed out of the cockpit and jumped down from it. As he turned, he caught Leia looking him over. "What happened?"
Poe looked back to the guards. Leia had never been one to talk so openly, especially about this mission.
"I think we should go to your office." Poe decided as he met Leia's eyes. She nodded and turned to lead the way.
As they walked, Poe looked around the hangar to try and spot the rest of his team. He wasn't exactly sure how long he was gone, but it couldn't have been for more than a week. His entire team should be back at base. He could easily get them assembled for a retraction mission.
Poe was already working on the specifics of his mission as he entered Leia's office after her. When they were alone, Leia turned towards him expectantly.
"Kylo Ren knows that my BB-8 droid has the map leading to Luke Skywalker." Poe gave her the most vital information first. Leia lowered herself into the chair in front of her desk at the horrible news. "I tried to resist, but..." Poe sat next to her. "I couldn't-" He shook his head as he looked away from his General. "Kylo Ren is... powerful. He has this.. this ability to make you feel like your brain is melting. I tried, General, I really did-"
"Poe," Leia stopped Poe as she looked up at him. "I do not blame you. I know that you did everything you could. But now he knows, and we cannot let him get hands on your droid." Poe nodded in agreement. "Where is your BB unit now?"
"On Jakku." Poe liked talking about the things they could prevent instead of the things that had already happened. It made him feel more productive. "I came back here because I know with my team we can find him before Kylo Ren and the First Order. I just need my team-" Poe stood up as he told her of his plan.
He didn't wait for her approval. He knew what he had to do, and it was easier for him to focus on actions instead thinking. He had the entire flight back to base to think, now he wanted to put his plan into action.
"Poe-" Once again, Leia's voice stopped him. He stopped just shy of her door to look back at her. She was standing now by her chair and instead of looking like the General he had come to know, she looked like a worried mother. "Aria isn't here."
The words stilled Poe. His plan wouldn't work if he didn't have his entire team- especially his number two. He was the leader, but she had a way of seeing everything through. He needed her.
"Where-" He was almost scared to ask. Knowing Aria, she could be anywhere.
"She went looking for you."
Poe's world tilted.
He staggered back to his seat and fell into it. He wasn't sure if it was the torture and constant fear of death or the very same exhaustion he gets from being around Aria- but either way he suddenly felt weak.
Leia lowered herself back to her chair and watched Poe carefully. She knew he had a lot of passion, she knew that the moment she met him. But she didn't expect his heart to be so big he could care for each of his teammates like this.
"Kylo Ren... he... he asked me about her." Poe looked up to Leia to try and understand. Now, more than before he realized how dangerous it was for Aria to be out there alone. "He has some sort of... thing for her." He couldn't think of another word to describe it. "When I said her name he got angry, then he asked if she was a pilot. I... don't-" Poe shook his head as he looked around the room. "I don't understand how he knows her or why he cares but... but if he finds her I think she could be in very real danger." Poe looked back at Leia. He expected to see the fear in her eyes like he felt, but there was none.
"More danger than you were just in yourself?" Leia asked instead of anything else. "You were tortured, were you not?" She looked over the bruises along his face. "Why do you think Aria is in more danger than you just were?"
"I just-" Poe stopped as he tried to think about it. When he couldn't give a direct answer, Leia nodded.
Leia let out a careful breath as she thought of how to best proceed. "Aria is a very capable woman, Poe." She assured him to try and ease his worry. "If she were to find herself in a compromising situation, I know she would fight her way out of it." That very familiar sparkle ignited in Leia's brown eyes. Poe had grown accustomed to seeing it when she spoke of Aria. "Aria wears her bruised knuckles like jewelry, and prides herself on her thick-headed ways of thinking, but do not mistake her position as your number two for being inferior. She has all the workings of a great, strong leader. She will come back to us, and when she does I would be worried for you. She went out searching for you, when she finds you here safe and sound, she will have some choice words to give you." Her mouth tilted up in a fond smile. "Do not worry, Captain. She will come back. We just have to wait."
Aria parked just outside of the town of Herench. She lifted herself from her cockpit and left her helmet in her seat as she jumped over.
She let R-8 down so he could scan for any life forms.
The two of them slowly walked through the burnt town. The houses were in shambles, they were mere skeletons of their previous structures.
Some of the houses still had smoke rising from them, and there was a strong smell of burnt flesh.
Aria stopped just shy of a tent. Inside of it were two big, crispy bodies with one small charred body between them. Her eyes stayed on the small body. A lump formed in her throat at the thought of what horrors went on here.
R-8 gave a series of beeps to tell Aria he finished his scans. She looked over at him hopeful, but with a shake of his head her mood diminished.
"I want you to widen your search. Try and locate BB-8, your programming should allow you to lock on to droids you've previously shared a hook-up with." Something caught Aria's attention as she spoke to her droid. It was on the outskirts of the town, hidden by a giant rock, but she could still see the shiny black paint glistening in the sun.
She left the remnants of the small, burnt town to investigate the shining metal. She barely made it to the rock formation when she recognized the shape of the fighter.
She stopped as her eyes roamed over the familiar vessel. It was Poe's baby, his creation. A pilot's fighter is like their child, she always thought that. And now here she is looking at Poe's burnt, destroyed X-wing.
Aria couldn't take it, she turned away from his fighter only to see the crisp, desolate town.
Her heart hammered away inside of her. Her entire being hurt for these people- for what they had to endure.
She knew who did it, she just didn't want to believe it.
"R-8?" Aria called out for her droid. "Do you have anything?" R-8 gave a happy chirp, making Aria look down at him sharply. "You do? Where?" R-8 rolled forward towards the nothingness of the desert beyond Poe's fighter. "Are you sure?" She asked as she squinted to try and find anything in the distance.
Again, R-8 gave a chirpy reply, and Aria shrugged.
"Alright, lead the way." She pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth to protect them from sand as she slowly followed after her droid.
Her small green and gray droid rolled over sound mounds and kept leading them further and further away from the small town of Herench.
Just as Aria's legs started to grow tired of walking in the sinking sand, she saw half a dozen pieces of a crashed Death Star.
"Look at this..." She paused on the peak of a mountain to look down at all the wonderful litter. "This has to be from when my parents were still in the Rebel Alliance." She took another step forward and almost fell forward as the sand gave way under her. To avoid falling she jogged down the sandy slope until she was standing right in front of one of this giant, Star Destroyers. "This is... incredible." She breathed out as she lifted a hand to touch the metal. She pulled her hand away as the hot metal seared her. "These have to be almost forty years old. I can't believe they aren't covered yet. They have to be massive..." Aria was tempted to venture down into the length of the Star Destroyer just to see how far down it went.
Before she got the chance, R-8 gave an obnoxious amount of beeps as he ran away from Aria towards the life forms he picked up on his scanner.
Aria took one last look at the amazing structure before she ran to catch up with R-8.
After another hour of jogging under the fierce sun, Aria was ready to give up and head back. But that was when she saw life.
It was a small town in the middle of the desert. She wasn't sure how it had snuck up on her, but now she could see it clearly- and more importantly she could see the First Order vessel on the out skirts of the town.
"Shit-" She swore as she picked up her pace to a sprint. She wasn't sure what the vessel was doing on Jakku: if it was there for her, if it had Poe, or if they were still looking for Lor San Tekka. Either way, she had to stop them from doing whatever they were trying to do.
She entered the town through the opposite side that the First Order soldiers did so she would have more time to search before running into them.
She didn't exactly know what she was looking for- but she kept her eye out for anything suspicious, while also looking for Poe's curly head of hair and Lor San Tekka's wrinkled face.
What she found instead, hiding inside a tent full of touristy gadgets, was Poe's leather jacket with the faded Resistance patch on the sleeve. Hope swelled inside Aria as she ran towards him. "Poe!" She shouted as she kicked up sand behind her. R-8 tried to keep up, but his little wheels couldn't run as fast in the sand.
He turned, but instead of seeing Poe's dark eyes and charming smile, she saw someone she had never seen before in her life- wearing Poe's jacket.
She stopped in her tracks, and as all of her hope diminished it was replaced with a searing hot anger that bubbled over into full-blown rage. She took off at a sprint again, but this time she pulled out her blaster and kept her finger over the trigger.
As she approached the man she grabbed the collar of Poe's jacket and ripped him backwards. He fell to the sandy floor with a thud, and as Aria put her boot on his chest and aimed the blaster at his skull she saw the wide, vivid fear in his eyes.
"I am going to ask you this one time, where. did. you. get. that. jacket?" Her words were clipped and each dripped with venom that could kill on impact.
Finn raised his hands defensively as he looked up at the woman who had single-handedly knocked him on his ass. With her bangs and scarf pulled up over her nose, he could only see her eyes and the purple bruise on the top of her cheek. But that was all he needed to see to become absolutely terrified of her.
Rey raised her staff in an attempt to attack, but Aria pulled her second pistol out and pointed it at Rey's head before she could even swing her staff.
"I'm not against killing a pretty girl- now tell me where you-" Aria didn't get to finish her question as something knocked against her leg. She looked behind her, then dropped her gaze to see BB-8's orange and white little spherical body. "BB-8!" Aria dropped down to her knees to look the droid over. "Where's Poe?" She asked. He gave a long explanation of what happened in a series of beeps and whistles. "He was captured? But he escaped?" BB-8 nodded his little head to Finn. Aria looked at the man in Poe's jacket, then raised herself to point both of her blasters at Finn. "You better have a damn good explanation for this." She looked over at Rey to make sure the girl knew she was included too. "I'm on a search mission for my Captain and here I find two bandits with his jacket and droid. Now, either you killed him-"
"Woah, woah, woah, no!" Finn cut her off as he pushed himself up to his elbows. Aria tightened her grip on her blasters and he stopped trying to sit up. "I helped rescue Poe. We escaped the First Order, but our fighter was shot down."
"Where?" Aria asked through gritted teeth.
Finn shook his head as he realized she didn't understand what he was trying to tell her. "He'd died. Poe didn't make it."
"No-" Aria's weapons suddenly became too heavy for her to hold up. Her arms fell, and she was sure she would be close behind them. "He can't-" The edges of her vision started to darken as her world crumbled around her.
She just began to trust again. She just began to trust him. Now he was gone.
Aria barely had time to grieve as she heard the shouts of Storm Troopers behind him.
The grieving woman let out an animalistic growl as she turned towards the half dozen Troopers. She raised both of her blasters and immediately opened fire on them before they got too close.
Rey and Finn were still on the ground behind her as they watched her attack the First Order soldiers. As Aria stood in front of them, her leather jacket blew back in the sandy wind and they saw that she wore a tight white ribbed shirt that only fell to her navel. There was a good two inches of exposed skin on her midriff before the hem of her black pants. Even with her leather jacket she looked under dressed for a gun fight. She had no armor and barely anything to protect herself, but she didn't seem even the slightest bit concerned about it.
Though her clothes were the first thing they noticed, they couldn't focus on it for long, not when she was gunning down each of the Storm Troopers like they were in some sort of training module.
Finn had never seen shooting as quick or precise as hers, and Rey had never seen someone so willing to stand in front of laser blasts. Her confidence may have been wrongly placed, but Rey idolized it.
"MOVE!" Aria shouted back at the two gawking young adults. "More will come! Go! I'll cover you!" Just as she promised, Aria moved back as they ran to make sure no troopers were able to shoot at them.
When the last of the first wave was dead, she turned and took off after the others.
"Don't think our conversation is over! Just because I'm helping you doesn't mean I trust you!" Aria felt the need to tell them as they ran through the town.
Just as she said, more Storm Troopers came to replace the first wave. As they fired off shots, the three runners had to duck to avoid being hit.
They ran through the tents to gain some cover from the over powering Troopers.
"Come on!" Finn yelled back at Rey and Aria. He grabbed Rey's hand to pull her along behind him.
Aria gained on them and slowed down to cover their backsides. She turned as she ran to fire off some shots at the new soldiers, but running and shooting made her lose her accuracy.
"Keep going!" She screamed at them. She turned back around to follow them. Just as they turned a laser shot through a cleaning unit and steamed poured out, almost scalding them.
Rey screamed at the close hit, but Aria and Finn didn't have time to scream as they maneuvered through the tents.
"BB-8! R-8! Keep up!" Aria looked back at the small droids trailing behind them.
"Let go of me!" Aria looked back up ahead at the two to see the girl try to pull her hand from the man's, but he wouldn't let go.
"No, we gotta move!" The man said as he pulled her down another set of tents. Aria turned and stayed close on their heels. She didn't want to lose them, then she would be stranded and have no answers about what happened to Poe.
"I know how to run without you holding my hand!" The girl pulled her hand roughly from the man's, then she turned back and looked at Aria and their droids. "Stay close! This way!" She turned and went down the opposite way that the man was leading them.
Aria stopped and looked from the man to the girl. She seemed like she knew more about where to go, so Aria followed her instead. The two girls ran side by side through the tents. They ducked under one just as another blast hit above them.
Rey ran into a tent and Aria followed behind. They both stopped as the Storm Troopers ran past them. Aria gave Rey a wild, dazed look at her evasive skills. Soon, Finn ran into the two of them, almost knocking Aria off her feet. "Careful-" Aria hissed as she clutched at the bruise on her ribs. "Look, I don't know who you two are or- or how you know Poe but we all need to get out of here- now."
"They're shooting at all of us!" Rey took a breath as she realized how much trouble they were all in.
"Yeah, they saw you with me! You're marked!" Finn began to look around for a blaster. Aria watched him scavenge before she turned and looked out of the tent to make sure they in the clear.
"Well, thanks for that!" Rey turned to Aria. "And why are they shooting at you?" She asked.
Aria pulled her scarf down to show off her wicked smile. "The First Order isn't very fond of me." With her face in full view Rey could see the gnarly bruise on her cheek and the exposed cut that only looked half healed. "And truthfully. I don't like them much either."
"Hey... can I borrow one of those?" Finn looked at the pistol hanging loosely from the holster inside Aria's jacket.
Aria raised a brow as she looked from the mystery man in her captain's jacket to her favored guns. "I don't know you like that." Finn's eyes widened at the audacity of the woman who knocked him on his ass, suspected him of murder, and now she won't share her weapon when they're being hunted by Storm Troopers.
In the silence, both Finn and Aria head something over head. As they were already looking at one another, they realized it wasn't just their imagination.
"We gotta go." Aria told them as she holstered her other pistol so she could run without worrying about them. Finn didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Rey's hand and followed Aria out of the tent. Aria sprinted towards the outskirts of town. As she ran, she looked up above their heads to see several TIE fighters swooping down on them.
Aria looked back ahead of her to make sure she didn't run into anything. She lead the others towards the waiting vessels, but before they could make it one laser hit close to the group, and the entire ground under them exploded. Aria flew forward, spiraling heels over head before she landed on her back ten feet from where they started. All of the air was stolen from her lungs and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get it back. Spots littered her vision as she looked up at the clear blue sky up above.
Rey appeared over her. Her wide, green eyes showed true fear as she looked her over. "Are you alright?" She asked.
Finally, Aria was able to suck in a breath, and her lungs rejoiced. "Dandy." Aria gritted as she pushed herself up. She remembered the TIE fighters on their tale and she shook the shock off. "It's time to go." She stood up and immediately looked to the sky to try and spot the TIE fighters.
They did a giant loop to head back down towards them.
"We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go-" Aria kept mumbling to herself as she looked over at the two people she just met.
This time, it was the girl who grabbed the guy's hand, and as she pulled him up they ran over to Aria. When they were by her side she took off towards the waiting transports.
More blasts dropped behind them as the TIE fighters grew nearer, but none of them were as close as the first shot.
"We can't outrun them!" The guy yelled as the blasts started to hit closer to them. Aria looked back to see the two TIE fighters almost on top of them.
"We might in that quad-jumper!" The girl pointed ahead of them. Aria whipped her head back around to see the parked, four-engine fighter. It was in rough shape, but it was due for them.
"We need a pilot!"
"We have one!" Both girls shouted at the same time.
They exchanged looks as they kept running. Aria didn't want to assume- hell, maybe she did- but the girl didn't look like a pilot, and even if she were there was no way she was a better pilot than Aria.
"What about that ship?" The man pointed to their right.
Aria looked at it to see something straight out of her past. She slowed her sprint down to a mild jog as she looked over the beautiful, magnificent, all-powerful, Millennium Falcon. It was her ship... well it was her dad's ship that would one day be hers.
"That one's garbage!" The girl said as she continued to run towards the quad-jumper.
Aria gasped as she looked ahead at the girl. The naive girl had no idea what she was about to pass up, but Aria didn't. She knew exactly what the Millennium Falcon could do.
She ditched the other two as she ran towards her ship. She barely made it a few steps before a loud, earth shattering explosion rocked the ground under her.
She stumbled as she looked over to see the ship the two bandits were heading to go up in smoke.
"The garbage'll do!" Both turn back and head towards the Millennium Falcon, but Aria had a head start so she already had the ramp lowering by the time they made it.
"One of you go to the gunport. Fire it up. I'll get us out of here." Aria commanded them as she navigated the all-too familiar hallways to get to the cockpit.
"You?" The young girl was right on Aria's heels as they made their way into the glass dome pit. "Why should I trust you?"
Aria barely paid attention to her as she dropped in her dad's pilot seat. "Because I've flown this ship before." Aria proved it by expertly flipping the switches.
The old beauty's engines roared to life, though they were a little rusty in Aria's opinion. Still, the sound alone brought her back to the good ol' days.
"Alright, sit, buckle up and do exactly as I tell you." Aria was short with Rey, but their time restraint demanded it. Rey seemed to sense the same thing as she sat in the co-pilot seat and buckled up. "I can do this... I can do this.."
"I thought you said you've flown this before!" Rey's eyes widened as she looked over at her pilot. Aria put her headset on and turned on the comm system so she could hear her shooter in the gun port. Rey followed her lead as she grabbed her own headset.
"Granted, I always sat on my dad's lap..." Aria gave the truth. Still, before she could psych herself out she pushed the thrusters and pulled the wheel back to lift them up.
Aria headed towards the sky with the TIE fighters hot on their trail. Her plan was to get them far away from the town before she had the gunner blow them to smithereens.
"Whoa! Hey! Oh! Stay low! Stay low!" Finn's voice came through the commlink.
"What? Why?" Aria almost screamed into her headset as she looked out the side of the cockpit to see the TIE fighters gaining on them.
"Stay low! It confuses their tracking!"
Aria groaned as she debated whether to listen to the man she just met. And against her better judgement, she jerked the wheel back so they dove up into the sky, then they rolled over into a giant loop over the top of the TIE fighters.
When she was behind them she pointed the tip of the ship towards the planet and dove down to the sand. Rey was just starting to panic about them crashing when Aria pulled back and the ship reared up mere feet from impact.
"You better be right about this." She told him as she hovered the Millennium Falcon just above the ground. The TIE fighters looped back around and headed straight for them. They began to open fire and Aria had to serpentine to avoid being blasted. "What's your man doing down there?" Aria asked her co-pilot as she focused on navigating through the dangerous laser blasts.
"He's not my- What are you doing back there?" Rey decided to ignore Aria's question and ask the gunner herself. "Are you ever gonna fire back?"
"I'm working on it! Are the shields up?" He yelled back at them.
Aria looked to the right to see the shields were down.
"It's right there." Aria pointed across Rey at the switches next to her.
"I know." Rey gritted as she flipped the switch herself.
The shield engaged, but it barely had enough juice to keep them covered through the fight. Aria swore at the previous owner of the magnificent ship. Whoever it was, they let her deteriorate. If her dad ever saw it in this condition... he'd kill whoever caused her destruction.
Just as Aria thought, the next shot that hit them rocked the entire ship.
"Shit- the shield is failing." Aria tiled the Millennium Falcon to avoid a hit, then tilted the other way to curve around a small hill.
Just in front of them were the large Star Destroyers she had admired before.
"We need cover, quick!" Finn yelled at them.
Aria licked her dry lips as an idea popped into her head.
"We're about to get some." Aria said into her commlink. "I hope." She whispered so only Rey heard. She banked hard to the left to turn towards the giant ships. The edge of the Millennium Falcon dug into the sand, but it helped further turn them until they were straight on to the ships. "How well do you know these things?" Aria asked her co-pilot.
"I've scavenged them every day of my life." Rey told her.
Aria smirked as she turned controls over to Rey. "Good." She looked over at her co-pilot. "Bring us into it."
Rey's eyes widened as she looked from the pilot down to the steering wheel in front of her. Slowly she wrapped her hands around it and turned it just slightly to test her control. The entire ship swerved to the right and she had to adjust.
"Careful, if you ruin this thing, I ruin you. Got it?" Aria asked. Rey nodded as she focused on closing in on the Star Destroyer. "I'm going to go try and fix the shield. Do you think you can manage?" Aria turned in her seat to get up, but she had to make sure she was leaving the ship in good hands.
"Yeah, go." Rey urged her.
Aria tore the headset from her head and threw it on the panel in front of her before she got up and ran from the cockpit.
She moved through the halls just as she did so many times before in her youth. Hell, it even smelled the same as it did before- oil and burnt wire. It was her dad's scent. Aria figured no matter who owned it, it still held a piece of her dad.
Since Aria knew every area of the ship, she knew exactly where to go to fix the shield.
She ran to her dad's junk closet and opened it to see everything still in shambles like her father always left it. She smiled at his lack of change over the years and grabbed a new Processing coil. Well... it wasn't new, but it was probably newer than the one in the ship.
With it in hand, she ran back to the cockpit. As she did, the ship lurched to one side and she was thrown against one of the walls.
She cursed as she fell to the ground. Her side started to throb, but she didn't have time to baby it as she pushed herself up and kept running.
When she made it back to the cockpit she set the processing coil in her empty seat and stepped up on the seat behind the pilots.
With her nails she dug the panel out of the wall and threw it behind her carelessly.
Again, as she worked the ship lurched to one side, but this time Aria grabbed onto the edge of the panel to keep her upright.
"Nice shot!" Aria looked over at Rey but noticed she was talking into her headset. She focused back on her task at hand.
She saw the processing coil completely rusted into the surrounding wires. It was bad, worse than anything she had seen in a long time. Still, she got to work.
She had to pry the wires off of the old processing coil and yank the old piece from its rusted spot. It took a lot of elbow grease, but she got it.
She switched it for the newer one in the pilot seat and began to hook it up to all the semi-corroded wires. When it was attached she waited for the little red light to blink to show it was connected. After a full second of nothing she slammed her fist against the panel above it and the light flickered on.
Aria gave a smile as she dropped down from the chair and moved to stand behind Rey. She flipped a series of switches to engage the shield.
"Got it!" Aria celebrated as the shield roared to life.
"Great, I need you." Rey admitted as they began to pull out of the Star Destroyer. "The gun port is stuck in forward position and we still have one TIE fighter on us."
Aria nodded as she pushed the disgusting old processing coil off her seat and sat down. She put her headset back on and turned controls back over to her.
"Alright guy, listen to me. I'm going to give you a shot- but it'll be for a second. You have to make it count, got it?" Aria told her gunner as she pulled them out of the Star Destroyer. She was a little sad she didn't get to fly through the Destroyer, but they had bigger fish to fry.
"Got it!" He answered her.
Aria focused on the controls as they neared the small exit of the Star Destroyer. It was getting smaller quick and for a fleeting second Aria didn't know if they'd fit.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no." Rey held on to the arms of her chair as Aria kept going.
"Hold on." Aria said through a tight jaw. The Millennium Falcon scraped along the edges of the small opening, but they pulled out. As soon as Aria reached the sandy dunes, she jerked a hard right. "Cut the power!" Aria shouted at Rey. Rey listened out of instinct and the Millennium Falcon lost all power to its thrusters. As it stalled, Aria flipped them upside-down so Finn and his front facing gun were looking at the exit of the Star Destroyer.
The TIE fighter flew out at just that second, and Finn locked on and shot it.
As soon as Aria hear the explosion she shouted, "Power on!" Again, Rey listened and the Falcon roared back to life as Aria lifted them up to the sky.
"WOAH!" Finn screamed through the commlink.
Aria smiled at her success as she pulled them out of Jakku's atmosphere.
"That was INCREDIBLE!" Rey laughed as she looked at the mystery pilot. Aria gave a surprised laugh.
"It... was." She admitted as she looked at the girl. For once since they met she took a good look at her. She was pretty, but very pale-skinned for someone who lived on a very sunny planet. Her chestnut brown hair was slightly darker than Aria's and was pulled back into three buns that trailed down the back of her head. Aria focused back on pilots as they made their way into the deep, darkness of space. When nothing surrounded them but stars and black, she looked back at Rey. "Come on, let's go congratulate your boyfriend." Aria took off her headset to go meet their gunner.
"He's not my-" Rey followed after Aria as she tried to explain. "I just met him. I've known him almost as long as I've known you." Aria gave a humph but didn't apologize for her previous statement.
The two girls jogged through the galley of the ship to the gunport entrance. Just as they arrived Finn had pulled himself up from the bottom level.
All three of them seemed to thrive on the other's excitement, and soon they were all equally talkative and congratulatory.
"Now that was some flying!" Finn told Aria at the exact same time Rey said,
"Good shooting!"
Almost simultaneously Aria said, "Did you see the way she navigated through the Star Destroyer?" Both looked to Rey then. "No one trained you?"
"No one?" Finn asked.
"I- I don't know- I've flown some ships but I've never left the planet." Rey looked between Aria and Finn as she explained. That just blew their minds even more.
"That was amazing!" Finn told her.
"Never left the planet? Kid you have more skills than most pilots I've trained before." Aria told her truthfully. She was already thinking of all the ways Rey could benefit the Resistance.
"Well what about that move you did?" Rey looked up at Aria to turn some of the attention towards her. "I've never seen anyone pilot like that."
"That? Please, that was dumb luck." Aria chuckled before she looked to Finn. "I can't believe you hit him! That was skilled."
"You set me up for it!" Finn told her.
"You got him with one blast!" Rey told him to build him up more. Aria nodded as she agreed with the girl.
"That was pretty good." Finn smiled as some of his confidence oozed through.
The three quieted down as they looked over each other. They were all complete strangers, but somehow what they had just done together brought them closer.
Their celebration was cut short when BB-8 wheeled up to them beeping. Before Aria could tend to him, Rey bent down and looked him over. "You're okay." Rey told him kindly. Again, Aria was surprised that the girl who never even left Jakku could speak droid. "He's with the Resistance. He's going to get you home... We both will."
Aria furrowed her brows as she looked to the man. His face was stone cold, but there was a stiffness to it.
"You're with the Resistance?" She asked him. Finn barely moved his head as he turned to look at her. As his black eyes met hers she saw the fear in them. "Why haven't I met you before?" She asked.
"You're with the Resistance too?" Rey stood up to look at Aria. "I... I don't know either of your names."
Aria blinked in surprise as she looked at the girl. Aria never really thought names were important in times of trouble, but apparently the girl did.
"Finn." The man answered easily. Aria didn't recognize the name, and she liked to think she knew a lot of the Resistance- especially since she helped Leia build it. "What's yours?" Finn asked Rey.
Rey gave a small smile towards him. "Rey." She told him. Then both looked towards Aria expectantly.
"Oh, is it my turn?" She lifted a hand towards her chest. "Wow, this is the first time I've actually had to introduce myself, most people know my name already." She wasn't upset, she was actually happy she had the chance to give her name instead of hear it given for her. "I'm Aria." She looked between the two of them. They didn't give last names, so she didn't think she had to either.
"I have-" Finn started to say something, but before he could a burst of steam bubbled up from the bottom grate in the lounge.
"Shit-" Aria pushed passed the two to get to the grate.
"I'll help!" Rey gifted her services.
Aria pulled the grate up and slid it over before she and Rey jumped down into the small cubby underneath.
One of the pipes had burst and was releasing a poisonous gas from their gas line.
"Whoa! What's going on?" Finn kneeled down as he watched the two girls worked.
Aria an Rey bumped elbows as they took off the small wire box that kept the pipe from hitting against the other pipes. The protector case was almost completely smashed in, which was the reason for the break in the pipe.
"The pipe burst." Aria told him. She lifted herself up so he could see her head and shoulders above the grate. "Run back into the closet at the end of the hall and grab the tool box!"
"The closet- how do you know-"
"Just go!" Aria told him before she lowered herself back into the hole.
"This isn't good." Rey told her as she tried to wrap a piece of her shirt around the hole to stop it from leaking, but it didn't help as the hole started to spread wider from the vibration of the ship.
"We need to shut down all unnecessary power. You go while I shut off the valve to this pipe. We can't keep it shut for long, though so..." She left off because she didn't think she needed to elaborate.
"Right." Rey understood and she pulled herself up and ran back to the cockpit and lower all power.
As she was alone, Aria turned in the small space and grabbed the pipe's valve. The thing had rusted and needed every bit of her weight to turn off. As it did, the steam slowed down until it stopped completely. By the time she had it shut off, Finn and Rey had come back.
But two seconds after the gas stopped, an alarm sounded off over head. Aria groaned at the excessive noise.
Rey dropped back down into the hole and the two girls began to look for the source of the alarm.
"It's the motivator! Grab me a Harris wrench -- check in there!" Rey motioned towards the toolbox Aria made Finn grab.
"How bad is it?" Finn asked as he tried to find what she wanted him to.
Rey and Aria mumbled together as they looked over the Motivator.
"It's connected to this pipe, so I shut it off and too much steam is building up in there-" Aria told her the issue. "So I open the valve, the steam leaks out and releases the building pressure, but we're exposed to a deadly gas." She weighed her options out loud.
Rey didn't seem to like either of them.
"Guys?" Finn asked them when neither responded. Rey looked to Aria, but she seemed too focused on her task to talk to him.
"If we wanna live, not good!" Rey gave him the dumbed down vision of what Aria told her.
"Where's the wrench?" Aria asked as she lowered herself to her knees and looked at a small bolt connecting the pipe to the Motivator. She had a crazy idea to temporarily reroute the steam from the pipe, but it was insane and she thought it would only have a 2% chance of working.
Rey popped up from the hole and grabbed the wrench from Finn then she lowered herself back down to help Aria.
"Alright, so here's what I'm thinking-"
"They're hunting for us now, we gotta get outta this system!" Finn's panic cut through Aria's plan.
Both of the girls stood up to look at the less-than-calm man.
"BB-8 said the location of the Resistance Base is "need to know" -if I'm taking you there, I need to know!" Rey told Finn.
For a split second Finn looked at Aria, but just as fast he averted his eyes.
"Yeah... tell us the location." Aria egged him on. She still had her suspicions about the man, and this would confirm or deny them. "You're with the Resistance, you should know."
"You're with the Resistance too!" Finn's voice rose in tone and even cracked at the end which made Aria smirk.
"Sure, but I want you to say it." Aria watched Finn closely.
"Hey- I think I've got an idea." Rey inadvertently saved Finn as Aria lowered herself back down into the hole.
"What do you got?" Aria asked her. Rey ran her hand along the pipe to follow its track. On the other side of the Motivator was a Redescor. It liquified the gas before it traveled back through to cool the propulsion tank. But the Motivator was collecting the steam and turning it to a liquid in it which was then ruining the propulsion tank.
"I think if we reopen the pipe and tape off the hole then make several small holes in the Motivator it can slowly leak out the built up pressure while most of the steam continues on to the Redescor."
Aria followed Rey's train of thought. It was risky, they were garauntee their need for a Motivator in the near future, but for now it would work.
"Do it." She nodded.
Rey stood up to get another tool from Finn. As she did, Aria positioned herself at the valve to get ready to open it back up. "Pilex driver, hurry!" As Finn looked for the tool Rey asked, "So where's your base?"
Aria's ears perked up as she waited for Finn's response. His hesitation was very telling in itself, but she would be hesitant to reveal the location of her base too, so she couldn't be quick to judge on that alone.
"Go on BB-8, tell her."
That struck Aria as odd. It wasn't his faith to the Resistance that kept him from spilling its location... he really didn't know.
But BB-8 did, and he told Rey in a string of beeps.
"The Ileenium system?" Rey asked.
"Yeah, the Ileenium system, that's the one -- get us there as fast as you can."
Rey lowered herself back down with the Pilex driver.
"He didn't know the location." Aria whispered to Rey. Honestly, she didn't trust either of the people she just met, but now she trusted Finn even less.
"What?" Rey whispered back as she began to drill the holes in the Motivator.
"He's not with the Resistance. I'm a Commander for the Resistance. I know almost everyone involved and I have never seen that man before in my life." She told Rey.
"Maybe he's low ranking." Rey made up an excuse. Aria shook her head but realized she wouldn't break through to Rey. When the Motivator was filled with holes Rey lifted herself back out of the hole. "I'll drop you four at Ponemah Terminal. I need the bonding tape, hurry!" She motioned towards the yellow tape.
Finn searched for hi as he asked, "What about you?"
"I gotta get back to Jakku!"
"Back to Jakku?" Aria lifted herself to look at Rey. "They'll kill you if you go back." Finn was just as concerned as he stopped his search to scream,
"BACK TO JAK--?!" He stopped his search for the tape to look at Rey's calm form. "Why does everyone always wanna go back to Jakku?!"
"I don't want to go back to Jakku." Aria offered. Rey looked quickly at the pilot before she went back to watching Finn try to find the tape.
"No, that one!" Rey pointed towards the yellow tape. "No. No." She said as Finn picked up a black empty wire container. "The one I'm pointing to!" She wagged her hand towards the circular yellow tape. Finn picked up a hammer. "No. NO. NO. If we don't patch it up, the propulsion tank will overflow and flood the ship with poisonous gas!"
Aria couldn't help it, she found the entire situation too humorous. Now more than ever she was sure the two were dating.
Finally, BB-8 showed Finn the tape, and he picked it up. "This?"
"Yes!" Aria and Rey said at the same time. Finn tossed the roll to Rey and the two girls dropped back down into the hole.
"Okay, as soon as you patch it I'll release the pressure. Be quick, we don't have much longer."
"Got it." Rey nodded as she began to tape the hole. Aria realized that the crack lined the entire length of the pipe and would take Rey too long on her own.
"Alright, cut off a long piece and give it to me. I'll help." She offered. Rey listened and unrolled a long piece of the thin tape before she handed it off.
Aria stuck the end to the tip of the crack on the far end and began to spin it around the pipe. She was going fast, but also had to make sure she overlapped so there was no possible way for gas to leak out.
"Hey. Rey." Finn scooted to the edge of the hole to look down at the two girls. "You're a pilot -- you can fly anywhere! Why go back?! You got a family? You got a boyfriend? Cute boyfriend?" Aria stopped as she looked up at Finn with mild amusement.
Rey wasn't nearly as amused as she stopped and popped her head up to give Finn an irritated glance. "None of your business, that's why!" She lowered herself back into the hole to keep taping.
Aria cut her piece off as she realized they were close to the middle. She handed the tape back to Rey as she barely had any tape left.
The second Rey finished taping off the leak, Aria pushed the valve up to allow the steam through again. Instead of leaking out, the tape held up. Even the alarm stopped blaring overhead, which Aria was eternally grateful for.
"Yes!" Her victory was short-lived as the little power they kept on- went out.
"That can't be good." Finn said as he looked up at the lights overhead. Aria pulled herself out of the hole and tried to find her way around Finn to get to the cockpit.
"No it can't be-" Rey followed after Aria who seemed to know the ship even in the dark.
Finn followed Rey just because he would much rather follow them then stay alone in the lounging area.
Once in the cockpit, Aria sat in the pilot seat while Rey took the co-pilot. Both tried turn switches to engage any sort of power.
"Someone's locked onto us." Aria decided as the fifth switch didn't work. "All of our controls are overrided. We're stranded."
Aria looked to Rey, then back to Finn.
Finn leaned between Aria and Rey and looked up. When he didn't have a good enough view, he pushed himself up onto the dead control panel. He used both Rey and Aria's heads to stabilize him.
Both girls pushed him off, but he was too entranced in the giant ship above him to notice their irritation.
"See anything?" Rey asked.
Aria leaned forward to try and see what Finn was seeing. Something shadowed them, but it was still too far back for her to see.
"Oh no." Finn muttered.
"What?" Aria asked. She didn't like not knowing, and Finn seemed like the time who shut down when he was scared. She hated that type. "Finn?" She urged him.
Finn dropped back down and fell into the seat behind Rey. Both girls swiveled in their chairs to look at him. His wide eyes took on a glazed look as he stared ahead of them into the abyss of space.
"It's the First Order."
Aria's blood chilled.
"What do we do-" Rey looked from Finn to the experienced Pilot next to her. "-there must be something-"
"They want me." Aria decided as she looked between the two. Finn seemed more surprised by that than Rey, which was telling for Aria. "You two need to get to that hole, hide yourselves-"
"Wait-" Finn stopped her, then he looked between the two girls. "You said poisonous gas..."
"Yeah but we fixed that." Rey told him. Already Aria knew what he was thinking, and she liked the idea.
"Can you unfix it?" He asked.
"Yes." Aria answered for Rey. "You two get down there and hide, Rey leak the gas again. There are two gasmasks in the back closet use them... and whatever you do-" Aria stood and pulled one of her laser pistols from her holsters. "Don't try and help me." Neither of the two moved, and Aria knew they were wasting time. "GO!" She shouted at them.
They rushed to action, leaving her alone in the cockpit.
Aria looked out the glass dome to see the entire sky of stars around her replace with the dark, looming metal of a large, First Order freight. As it swallowed them hole, the metal jaws closed, trapping them inside.
"Alright," Aria breathed out. "Let's do this." She straightened her back and drew her shoulders back before she left the cockpit.
She moved slowly through the walls of the Millennium Falcon as she headed for the ramp. It could be the last time she saw her ship, and she wanted to savor every second of it.
Each ding and dent had a story behind it, most were from her admittedly, but that made the ship much more meaningful. This place was her childhood. It was her home.
Aria positioned herself directly over the grate the others were in. She looked down to see them all squished inside with BB-8 and R-8. She gave Finn and Rey a nod before she looked back up towards the ramp.
The ramp started to lower, and with it came a hiss as the pressure dropped inside.
Aria staggered her footing as she raised her blaster with steady hands. She let out a slow breath through her mouth as she kept her eyes trained on the door. Her adrenaline was pulsing so hard she couldn't hear anything over the beat of her heart.
That is, until she heard one familiar voice say,
"Chewie, we're home."