Iberis is not a hero.
She's not some glorious fighter who is quick and sharp, who will conquer the First Order and bring peace to the galaxy. She's just a mediocre pilot with good intentions.
And right now, as she leans outside the stone house where Poe is getting the map to the Luke Skywalker from Lor San Tekka, she gets a horrible feeling. When she looks up at the sky, her feeling becomes justified.
"Dammit," she groans. Just as BB-8 goes rolling through the beads, shrieking a warning to his master, Iberis pounds on the outside wall. "Poe, hurry!" she exclaims and grabs the pistol that was strapped to her waist. She's rubbish with weapons- Poe only gave it to her for absolute protection. He said let him do all the shooting. What she sees is ships, belonging to the New Order, descending down on the little town.
Poe comes running out a second later, Lor San Tekka in tow. Iberis joins his side just as the old man instructs for the two of them to leave. Iberis can see their x wings still stationary, and with a final goodbye to the elderly man, she and Poe begin running again, and that's when all hell break loose. There's storm troopers come streaming out of their ships and begin firing on the villagers. She's seen the violence that the First Order is capable of on the attacks against the resistance, but against helpless villagers… it is disgusting.
"Focus, Ibie!" Poe shouts as her. He knows her well, and knows when she's not entirely focused on their task. He always manages to bring her back.
They've reached their x wings and her old, but loyal, droid R3-Y2 is waiting patiently for her. He begins beeping widely and hopping, scared of the fighting that's ensued.
"It's okay, R3!" she screams as R3 gets hoisted into the x wing. Just as she gets into the cockpit, the storm troopers see them and hit Poe's ship, but luckily BB-8 is saved from the blast. When they hit her, they hit R3 directly. The blast is so powerful Iberis is blown back and lands on the ground with a hard thud.
When she pushes herself up, she sees nothing but fire engulfing the wings and cockpit. "R3!" she cries but it's too late for the little robot. Poe is on his knees beside his ship, instructing BB-8 to get as far away from here as it can go. The droid has the map hidden away, and the fate of the galaxy is now on it.
"I promise I'll come for you!" Poe promise BB-8, who beeps in agreement then begins rolling away.
Poe runs and skids to a stop beside a wall, his rifle balanced on the broken wall and aiming at the storm troopers. Iberis joins his side just as another ship descends to the ground. The door opens, more storm troopers come rushing out, who then are followed by heavy footsteps.
Irberis swallows hard and bites her bottom lip. She knows who belongs to those footsteps. A moment later he strides off the ramp.
She has a secret. A secret harbored by Han Solo and Leia too. The secret is the tall, dark figure who is now interrogating Lor San Tekka. His name is Kylo Ren. That's not his real name, but the one he chose to adopt. One time he was a childhood friend but now he's twisted and morphed into something evil.
And perhaps too far gone to be saved.
Iberis is shaken out of her thoughts when Ren grows furious with Lor San Tekka and strikes him down violently, causing screams to erupt from the captured villagers. Poe shoots at Ren and then darts over the wall, running full forced at the cloaked man.
"Poe, wait!" Iberis yells and launches herself over the wall too, but a second later, both the pilots are frozen mid step. She's never felt like this before, but she knows exactly who caused it. Ren instructs two storm troopers to bring Poe over to him, but Iberis is still frozen.
The sound of Poe being beaten fills the air and she groans and tries desperately to move, but the force is far too strong for her to overcome. She is facing the ground and her hair forms a dark curtain, obscuring her face. She hears Poe make a stupid comment about talking first, then Ren tells his men to put him on the ship. The sound of heavy footsteps is heard once again, and suddenly her invisible barrier disappears and she falls to the ground.
"Fuck," she mumbles, as she clutches her ribcage. One of them cracked from the earlier impact and the sudden landing made her painfully aware of it.
"That's not a good word to say, little girl." A heavy voice replies. When she looks up, all she sees is the black, terrifying mask. The voice coming from the mask is unfamiliar and cold. It is not her friend.
She begins trembling, and she wants to hit herself for looking so weak. She refuses to look at his mask anymore, instead looking at his black boots.
"You're with the Resistance. I should have guessed," he scorns. "Put her on the ship. Let her join the other pilot." He instructs to two storm troopers, who immediately grab her roughly by the arms and drag her quickly to the ramp.
A Captain, clad in silver with a red cape approaches Ren. "What about the villagers?" she asks.
"Kill them all," he replies quickly.
The troopers begin firing ten seconds later.
Poe begins struggling, so does Iberis. "No, no please don't do this. Ren, don't!" she screams. She vigorously kicks at the storm troopers holding her, and manages to make contact with one of their heads. The trooper is thrown off balance and topples over the ramp. The other storm trooper throws her to the floor of the ramp and smashes the butt of his rifle on her jaw. The last thing she sees is Kylo Ren looking at her, his head tilted as he watches her.
Her childhood friend is long gone. And now she's in the hands of a monster who most likely wishes her dead.