Everything belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney except my own character, Kira.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...
Poe woke with a jolt, immediately turning over to lean on his hands and knees while coughing and trying to bring more air into his lungs. He looked up and squinted at the bright sun, waiting for his vision to adjust to the bright light.
As the memories of what just happened to him started to come back, he slowly got up and started to look around for the stolen TIE fighter. Taking in his surroundings, he was met only with the barren endless sand of Jakku.
He had been aiming to go back to the village he had left BB-8 at, hoping follow the droids trail. But a First Order missile hit them, after Finn had been too distracted to shoot it down.
FINN! Poe realized his companion was nowhere to be seen.
"Finn!" he called out to the desert. Had his new friend managed to eject from the fighter in time? "Finn!"
When he was met with nothing but the shrill of the wind, he dipped his head sadly, letting out a deep breath. Realizing he better start looking for a way back to the Resistance, he started walking.
Kira set her ship down right outside of the small settlement of Cratertown.
Jakku… she thought with a sneer, of course she had to run out of fuel near the desert planet. This place was so depressing, reminding Kira of some not-so-pleasant memories. As she lowered the ramp, she grabbed her blaster, hooking it onto her belt, then made her way to the ramp.
A small set of beeps made her stop and turn around.
"No Artoo, you stay here", she told the astromech droid as she wrapped her scarf around her head, covering most of her dirty blonde locks. "If someone spots you here, they'll jump on you and try to take you for parts. Stay here and watch the ship."
Artoo beeped a short response and watched as his mistress started making her way towards the small settlement, closing the ramp behind her.
Poe let out a small breath of relief as a settlement finally came into his vision. He trudged forward, pushing himself despite his injuries. He grunted as each step he took sent a searing pain up his body. As he entered the village, he took in his surroundings. There was mostly just family homes scattered around, but an area with a few small buildings sat in the middle.
Someone around here has to have access to a ship, Poe thought, as he started over to the center of town.
He entered the first building, which was filled with spare parts of droids and ships. A human male stood at the counter, working on a small droid head.
"Excuse me", Poe said, slowly approaching him. "Is there anyone around here that could give me a ride off planet?"
Without looking up, the man scoffed and shook his head, "Off planet? You'd be lucky to find a ride to Nima Outpost."
Before Poe could utter a response, a voice interrupted him.
"I need a tank of fuel, Rhydonium preferably."
The man grunted and walked off to retrieve the new customer's request, and Poe turned to see the newcomer.
She was tiny, a whole head shorter than him, but didn't look any less tough. Poe could see the outline of her toned arms through her faded green sleeves and a blaster hanging from her hip. Her blonde hair reached her mid-back, peeking out from under the sarf she had wrapped around her head.
"Could you stop staring at me, please?" she said annoyed, finally looking over to him.
"I'm sorry, I just…" Poe stammered as his dark eyes met her blue ones. "Did you just say you needed fuel?"
"Yes…" she answered slowly, still wary of him.
"As in you have a ship?" he asked, hopeful.
The shopkeeper returned then and handed the girl her fuel, while she gave him the appropriate credits and then quickly walked out without answering Poe.
"Hey! Wait!" Poe said, as he attempted to run after her, but only succeeding in awkwardly stumbling while catching up to her.
"What?!" she snapped, turning to look at him.
"I need a ride off planet", he told her quickly. "I don't have any credits on me now, but I can promise you'll get a handsome fee once we get to our destination."
She looked him up and down and then responded cooly, "I don't take passengers."
Poe trudged after her as she turned to walk away again.
"Look, I really need your help. I'd get a ship and get off myself if there was one available, I'm a pilot", he hastily explained.
At that, she stopped and turned back to look at him again.
"You're a pilot?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "For who? You're definitely not with the First Order, and I'd almost believe you flew for the Republic if it wasn't for the fact that you're out here, on your own without a squad."
"How do you know I'm not?" he quizzed her.
"Because of what I just said: you're here. On Jakku, the Republic has less interest in this system then the First Order does", she said crossing her arms.
"You sure have a lot of knowledge on Republic affairs", Poe pointed out.
"Plus", she continued, ignoring his statement and taking a step closer to him while looking over his badly bruised body again. "You're obviously trying to run from something."
Poe cocked his head at her, daring her to come to the correct conclusion.
"You're with the Resistance", she said softly, looking straight into his eyes.
"You're observant", he responded.
Before their little back and forth could continue, they both looked up to the sky as they heard the familiar screeching of TIE fighters, and saw two fly right over the village.
"Looks as though they're heading to Nima Outpost", the girl said, sensing Poe tense.
Poe grabbed her wrist, making her look sharply back to him, then down at his hand on her arm, and then back up at his face.
"Please", he begged. "Just get me to the closest system where I can get my own ship. That's all I ask."
Before she could respond or tell him to let go of her wrist, they were interrupted by a harsh voice behind her.
"Hey! You two! Show some identification!"
Poe swallowed as he took in the small squadron of stormtroopers.
"Go check through the village. The wreckage isn't far, they might be here", the top officer told two others, leaving only three behind.
Kriff, they were looking for him.
"Well, let's go!" he told them again, blaster in hand.
Poe had not let go of the girls hand, and she had not turned around. She met his eyes, and then purposefully glanced down at her belt, urging him to do the same.
Her blaster!
"Alright that's it, y-" the trooper started as he walked closer to them, but was cut off as Poe quickly grabbed her blaster off her hip as she turned and delivered a swift kick to the head troopers face, knock him down. Poe shot the two behind him before they could react.
"Let's go!" she said and they took off with her in the lead.
Kira shook her head as they ran. Was she really doing this? Helping a Resistance pilot run from the First Order?
I couldn't just let him die, not by them….by him, she told herself.
Still, this wasn't smart. She'd successfully stayed clear of both the Resistance and the First Order since this whole mess started. And she would prefer it stay that way.
She'd drop the pilot off on the nearest hospitable planet and that'd be it. She'd disappear again.
Kira took out her com quickly and spoke into it.
"Artoo, lower the ramp and get the ship ready for takeoff, we've got to make a quick get away!"
She almost breathed a sigh of relief when her ship came into view.
Almost.
They weren't away yet.
As they ran up the ramp, well she ran, he limped, she made her way to the controls.
The pilot collapsed into the copilot's chair not long after.
"Did you see any TIEs in the area?" she asked him as she started the takeoff sequence.
"No, I think you were right, they were all headed to Nima", he said.
"Better not to take any chances", she muttered. "Artoo, get the shields up!"
As she left the atmosphere and got out of range of any near ships, she finally let out that sigh of relief.
"So…" the pilot said awkwardly. "I'm Poe, Poe Dameron."
She almost laughed at how random that was.
"Don't you think that's a little dangerous?" she asked, not looking at him. "Telling me your name? I could be a First Order spy for all you know."
"Nah, I don't think so", he said as a sly smirk appeared on his face.
"Why not? I could be", she insisted.
"Because I have a feeling that you didn't just save me from those troopers out of the goodness of your heart", he told her. "You were running from them too."
"How could you possibly know that?" Kira asked, starting to get irritated with his smugness.
"I read people well", he winked at her.
Kira rolled her eyes, and turned her head even further away, trying to hide the heat that rose into her cheeks. As annoying as he was, he was also pretty good-looking.
That just makes him even more of a nuisance, Kira thought.
"So, this is your ship?" he asked, and Kira actually looked over at him to see that he was looking around her control room, gawking.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?" she asked, suddenly defensive.
"It's a yacht!" he pointed out. "It's huge!"
"Oh...yeah, I guess", she mumbled.
At that, Artoo made his entrance into the room.
"Who's this?" he beeped at her.
"This is Poe", she told him. Poe nodded at the small droid.
"So Princess, you have a name?" he smiled slightly at her.
"It's not Princess, that's for damn sure", she responded, taking off her scarf and letting her hair fall.
"Well looking at this fancy ship, I'm not sure what else to call you", he smirked, enjoying her irritability.
She took a calming breath and then glanced at him.
"It's Kira," she said curtly.
"Kira", he mulled over the name. "I like it."
Was he….flirting with her?
"It's nice to meet you Kira", he sent her another one of those charming smiles.
Yep, definitely flirting.
On one hand, it infuriated Kira, but on the other hand it sent her stomach flying to catch up with the rest of her.
He persisted as she tried to ignore him as she flew farther away from the planet.
"You got a last name, Princess?" he asked. Did he really just call her Princess again?!
"Not one that's any of your business", she said, not looking away from the viewport.
Poe chuckled, he found he rather liked her fiestyness.
"So where am I taking you?"
"Hmm, there's not really anything near here", he thought out loud. "If you take me straight to the base though, I can promise you that reward a lot quicker."
"That wasn't our agreement", she said darkly.
"What? You already know I'm in the Resistance, and the base changes regularly, not like you would pose a real threat", he pointed out.
She raised her brow at that. Not pose a threat? He really had no idea.
"Alright Flyboy, where's the base?" she asked, giving in.
"Flyboy?" he raised his eyebrows.
"If I have to be Princess, then you get be Flyboy", she shrugged.
He laughed again, before answering her.
"The base is in the Ileenium system, on D'Qar."
Kira put the coordinates in the system, getting the ship ready to go into hyperspace.
"So what about the ship?" Poe inquired. "She got a name?"
"Actually she does", Kira answered as she sent them into hyperspace.
"Jade's Fire."