Directions acquired, the group continued through the doors and hallways, fanning out to guard each other at intersections. If the troopers' instructions were correct, which under the circumstances they were without a doubt, then they were closing in.
"Cameras," Nova warned.
Poe acted accordingly in sync with her, taking out the two cameras situated either side of the intersection while Finn went for the next door to break through the inscription codes.
Rey seemed distracted, looking off down another hallway, muttering to herself. "The dagger is on this ship. We need it."
Poe frowned. "Why?"
"A feeling. I'll meet you back at the hanger." She took off before she could be questioned further.
Nova watched her go, sceptical. There was something else, something personal in Rey's determination. It was perhaps guiding her too strongly, but that was not for the pilot to decide.
Finn went to protest and follow her, but was caught by Poe before he could take too steps.
"Chewie," he reminded him.
Finn nodded, and together the trio took off through the newly opened door.
They located the interrogation block soon enough – the black durasteel highlighted with red a welcome but twisted change from the rest of the ship's white and blue. They worked their way down the row of uninviting doors, scanning each one for the reference they had been given. It was a mercifully short search.
The cell door opened to reveal their Wookiee companion – alive, if not entirely well. He was forced to his knees, his large furry arms pulled back and shackled to the wall.
He roared in relief at the sight of them.
"Of course we came for you, Chewie," Poe said, setting about freeing him with Finn's assistance.
Nova kept her eyes and blaster on the door.
Chewie looked between them, growling to inquire as to why there was only three of them.
"Rey's here," Finn assured. "She going to get the dagger."
"We should get moving," Nova said. An uneasy feeling gnawed at her ribs with every second that ticked by in that room.
"Copy that." Poe groaned, straining as he and Finn hauled the Wookiee to his feet.
Their eyes met briefly, and Nova nodded tightly.
One way the couple were able to maintain a stable balance between work and their private life was to compartmentalise: keep any strong feelings or grievances off the battlefield until the mission was complete. It meant they kept their judgement clear, and could follow each other's orders without much complaint.
It was a useful method they employed, born from the deep trust and respect they held for one another. They knew when to defer to the other in combat, and could rely on them to have their back in a bind no matter what.
Finn and Poe stepped past her back into the hallway, but before Chewie could do the same, Nova threw her arms around him tightly. Her head became engulfed by his thick fur for a moment, and she felt his arm wrap around her. One of his paws patted her head, and he emitted a sound closer to a purr than his usual growls.
"Follow me," Finn instructed, leading them back into the open. They barely reached the first door before they were backing up and shooting out the controls to the blast door. Company had found them. "Wrong way!"
"Not really a right way is there?" Poe grumbled, heading for the opposite exit, clearing it with a few well-aimed shots.
Time to improvise a way out. Stealth had been jettisoned out the airlock with the first shots. Now they needed speed and efficiency.
Finn jumped ahead to map out their path, Nova hot on his heels to help clear out the stormtroopers.
Poe hung back, grabbing a trooper's discarded weapon and sliding it across the floor to Chewie. It shrunk in the Wookiee's great paws, and hardly looked comfortable for him to use, but it would have to suffice.
Nova's knee grumbled under the pressure of her sprint, but she ignored it. Keeping pace with Finn was proving difficult, her boots barely finding grip on the floors, polished within an inch of their life. She found an advantage in it however; barging her way into a trooper before landing a bolt in his chest.
Poe and Chewie caught up behind her, and they continued to run, marking their path with bodies. Ducking and dodging blaster bolts – mostly coming head-on.
Around a corner. Down a small set of stairs. Up a ramp. Into another corridor.
They were able to slow to a controlled walk, finding reprieve from attack. Finn and Nova had fallen back to flank Poe, holding a loose formation.
"We close?" Poe asked.
"Straight ahead," Finn confirmed.
Another squadron arrived behind them, carving them apart.
Nov cursed when her blaster jammed, causing Finn to grab her arm and yank her to cover behind him. Smacking the weapon, it managed a single bolt before jamming again.
Her heart raced at what felt like one hundred miles per hour as panic crept up on her. Brown eyes narrowed past her rapidly unravelling hair. Teeth mangled the inside of her cheek.
The sound of an unarmoured body hitting the floor gave her cause to turn. The sight of Poe's crumpled body made her heart jump into her mouth and her stomach drop. Against her better judgement she broke cover to run for him, unsure if he was dead or alive. She had heard Finn shout behind her, and a bolt flew past her head to hit the offending stormtrooper.
Poe was alive, stirring as they reached him. He had taken the hit in his left arm, leaving both the wound and his shirt scorched from the heat. Fortunately there was very little blood.
He leaned against Nova when she crouched beside him, though he did not look at her. He was too far into shock to move much aside from to grab his arm and push himself up somewhat.
"You alright?" Finn asked.
The pilot groaned, about to answer when they were surrounded by the rushing sound of plastoid boots on durasteel floors coming closer and closer from every direction.
"Nope," he managed weakly.
Four squadrons of stormtroopers surrounded them in the intersection. An imposing wall of bright white and clean black, with weapons drawn and primed to stun any of them at a moment's notice.
Nova shot to her feet, taking a protective stand over Poe despite being unarmed and outnumbered. There was no viable way out for them now – at least not that they could see. No hope to fight or run. But the fire that burned inside Nova would not be easily smothered, least of all by stormtroopers.
"Drop your weapons!" various troopers demanded in a barked chorus, getting harsher the longer they delayed. "Drop 'em! Now!"
The group all eventually complied, dropping or tossing their weapons and raising their hands in surrender.
"Hey, fellas," Poe tried half-heartedly.
"Shut up, scum."
Their weapons were collected, and binders were brought out.
Nova watched the trooper who retrieved her blaster, cocking an eyebrow. "Mind taking a look at that for me? Been giving me some trouble."
The insolence earned her a kick to the back of her knee, sending her to the floor with a groan. She heard Poe call her name, struggling against his restraints.
She too refused to go without further defiance, spitting at the pristine boots as she was cuffed.
Pulled to their feet, the prisoners were dragged down another path of identical halls. They each often shrugged off the grip of the troopers, but it did little to dissuade them; and put more strain on Poe and Nova's injuries.
They were met by three high-ranking officers, all of whom looked as stuck up and self-righteous as each other. One was older than the others – grey hair and tightly lined features an obvious enough cue. The third was silent and unimportant, but the second they could all recognise. General Hux – even more weasel-like in person.
"Allegiant General," a trooper addressed the oldest officer. "The scavenger's not with them."
At least Rey was still undiscovered. And the Supreme Leader's presence was noticeably absent on the ship.
The Allegiant General scrutinized them. "Take them away. Terminate them."
Nova's stare was fixed on the floor, suddenly feeling reality forced down her throat. Dying quietly in a non-descript cell aboard one of a thousand identical Star Destroyers was not how she had imagined her death – and over her life she had imagined it many times. Struck down by a lightsaber. A hit she could not shake on a bad job. Or crashing her already burning starfighter into the bridge of a First Order Star Destroyer. All risks that came with her various occupations over the years. All marginally exciting and somewhat meaningful – inspiring even.
Under Hux's supervision they were escorted back to the detention block for execution. They were shoved into a cell and made to stand in a line, backs to a firing squad of four stormtroopers, one for each of them.
Nova thought it was a cowardly choice.
She glanced to Poe as the blasters whistled in submission, waiting for the order. She wanted to take his hand; one last moment of peace between them, but their binders did not allow such a luxury.
"Actually," Hux cut in with tight mannerisms. "I'd like to do this myself."
In that moment Nova felt her death was officially ruined.
Poe turned to Finn. "What were you gonna tell Rey before?"
"You're still on that?" Finn grumbled.
Poe's look turned into a glare. "Oh I'm sorry, is this a bad time?"
"It sort of is a bad time!"
"Well, cause later isn't really an option –"
"You can't be serious," Nova groaned.
"– if you wanna get something off your chest –"
The familiar sound of blaster fire cut them off as they all flinched, waiting for the burning impact in their backs. But nothing came.
Poe gave Nova a questioning look, to which she frowned and shook her head. She had not done anything to stop them.
Behind them lay the bodies of their executioners. And above them stood General Hux, blaster still smoking. "I'm the spy."
"What?" Poe exclaimed.
Nova scoffed in disbelief.
"You?" Finn gawked.
The General sighed, already irritated. "We don't have much time."
Poe could not contain his excitement. "I knew it!"
Finn gave him an incredulous look. "No you did not!"
---
Uncuffed and rearmed, the group followed Hux through the Steadfast to the hangers. They were still sceptical, but were in no position to bite the hand saving them; at least not until they had secured their escape. Besides, he had not make another move against them. Yet.
The General's presence deterred any questions from passing squads of stormtroopers or lower-ranking officers, giving them an unhindered journey.
They ran into their droid companions at the hanger, laden with both Chewie and Rey's weapons – the Jedi absent once again.
Hux tapped the access panel at the for the door. "I've shut down the impeders. You've got seconds."
Through the window they caught a glimpse of the Millennium Falcon, sitting virtually undisturbed.
"There she is," Poe beamed. "She's a survivor."
He set off for the ship with the droids and Wookiee in tow.
Hux stopped Finn and Nova before they could follow. "Wait. Blast me in the arm. Quick."
"What?" Finn frowned.
"Or they'll know."
Nova nodded when Finn looked to her briefly. It was his shot to call. His damage to inflict – he could even kill him if he saw fit.
Instead of the arm, he shot the General in the thigh, sending him to the floor with a whimper.
"Why are you helping us?" he demanded, keeping him at the other end of his blaster.
"I don't care if you win," Hux spat. "I need Kylo Ren to lose."
"So all you want is power?" Nova scoffed.
"I admit it."
"You're a schutta."
Hux did not back down in the face of the foreign insult. "That fire. You might fight on different sides but you're not unlike him, Organa."
Finn got a hold of Nova before she could kick him in the head, all but dragging her away into the hanger. "Stay calm – he's not worth it, he was just trying to antagonise you."
"I am calm." She shrugged him off as they boarded the Falcon, heading straight for the cockpit.
Chewie had already initiated pre-flight checks and procedures by the time she arrived, and he directed her to take the pilot's chair beside him.
She did so reluctantly. Much as she loved her father's ship, piloting a freighter was not something she enjoyed. She much preferred being behind a smaller, more manoeuvrable starfighter. But under the circumstances of Chewie not trusting Poe with piloting after his lightspeed skipping stunt, the duty fell to her.
The controls were familiar enough – the Millennium Falcon was the ship she had first learned to pilot at a young age. Despite the many years that had passed, and the memories she had created in the ship since, she often still felt like a child playing pretend as her father on one of his adventures.
"We ready to go?" she asked.
Chewie groaned.
"We're not leaving without Rey."
"Threepio said she was back in the hanger we came in through," Poe said from the seat behind her.
"Okay," she murmured. "Let's get her and get out of here."
The cockpit fell silent as the ship began to rise, carefully trading the prison of the hanger for the openness of Kijimi's lower atmosphere.
With Poe's guidance they located the hanger they had entered through.
Nova was unable to get a clear look at the hanger through the light, barely spotting Rey on the edge before she rotated the cockpit away. The aft was sprayed with blaster fire, though it was of little concern – it would do hardly any damage.
Standing from her seat, she pulled the auxiliary power controls, giving the engines a boost to knock any enemy forces off their backs. She could feel her brother's presence down there, but she pushed the feelings the dread aside
"Be quick!" she yelled back to Finn. "Poe, make our calculations for the jump to lightspeed."
"Yes, ma'am," Poe said, leaning around her to enter the coordinates for the Endor System.
A tense pause was felt in the cockpit, waiting for the all-clear. It came a moment later.
"Get us out of here!" Finn yelled from the corridor; Rey safely next to him.
The controls were slammed, and soon enough they were swallowed by the bright blues and whites of hyperspace.
Poe and Nova shared a sigh of relief.