Chapter Two.
"Maz is a friend of mine." Ben explained, leading the group up the main steps to the Cantina. "She's a friend of the family, really, but she's run this watering hole for the past thousand years. You want to get BB-8 to the Resistance? She's our best bet."
He paused then, one foot still on the stairs, the other in the doorway as he turned to face the kids. "Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking. And don't stare…"
They both blinked at him, confusion evident. "At what?"
"Any of it." Ben waved a hand vaguely, pushing at the door.
The first time he had been to Takodana Ben had been, perhaps, a little young. His father had brought him here on a run when he'd been only six and in retrospect his mother's anger had been completely justified. Takodana was a meeting place for some of the worst kinds across the galaxy, but… it was also a meeting place where you could turn up some of the best kinds.
Aliens, humans, pirates, smugglers, bounty hunters, they all found themselves settling down for a day or two at Maz's Cantina. It was a breeding place for gambling, black market deals, scheming, it didn't matter what you did or what you'd done—for the most part at least—so long as you adhered to the rules, you could go about your business. There was really only one rule on Takodana; leave your drama at the door. It worked surprisingly well actually, for a number of reasons. Most folks respected the space that Maz provided for them, didn't want to upset that balance. Most folks were also terrified of what would happen should they provoke the owner.
Rey and Finn stuck close behind him, but there was no missing the awed expressions on their faces as they couldn't help but stare. Ben couldn't blame them though; this was probably the first time either of them had seen so many different species in the same space. It kicked at that damnable conscious of his; these kids had obviously both come from their own kinds of hell, they deserved better than whatever life had cut out for them.
"There are so many." Rey whispered, head swivelling to take in every sight that she possibly could. "I didn't realize there could be this many…"
"Let me take you to Corellia sometime Kid." Ben snorted. "Makes this seem almost desolate in comparison."
"Oh." Hazel eyes widened at that, and Rey shook her head. "Oh I don't think I would handle that very well."
"BEN SOLO!"
Ben opened his mouth to answer, to offer some reassurance or something, when his name rang across the Cantina. Everything went silent at that, all eyes and optical sensors swivelling to land on him and the smuggler resisted the urge to lift his hands in surrender. He was… almost certain he wasn't going to get shot.
"Oh crap." He muttered, affecting a weak smile and a wave. "Hey, Maz!"
The crowd parted as noise returned to the Cantina, someone getting shoved out of the way as Maz Katana came to stand in front of him, hands on her hips in a way that reminded him strongly of his mother. "Where's my boyfriend?"
"Huh?" Finn cut Rey a confused look, stepping closer to her.
"Chewie's working on the Falcon." He answered, wondering if there had ever been a time in his memory when he hadn't been taller than her. Not that he was going to voice that errant thought; he was quite happy with the current placement of his organs, thank you very much.
A small, almost imperceptible flicker of surprise crossed Maz's face then, until her lips pursed and her eyes flicked to the two standing behind him. "Pity, I like that Wookiee. Well, I assume you need something. Desperately. Let's get to it then."
Without warning she spun on her heel and walked away, gesturing for them to follow. Ben turned to see matching looks of concern on Rey and Finn's face, and gave them a sort of hapless gesture. "C'mon then."
There were a great many types that frequented the Cantina on Takodana; there were Resistance sympathisers, there were spies to the First Order, and there were those in between. The figure lounged in a shadowy corner of the Cantina, bionic fingers tapping a steady rhythm against the scratched and stained wood, was neither.
She cut an intimidating figure in black; her reinforced undersuit strengthened by plastoid plating that was almost reminiscent of a Stormtrooper's armor. Almost, in that it had been minimized to offer a balance that favored mobility over protection leaving only the chest plate and greaves. The helmet was designed to protect the wearer's identity at all times, a smooth curve with a bottom that could be manipulated to reveal the face below the nose. Her posture was relaxed at the moment, free hand running affectionately through the hair of the woman sprawled across her lap, but it was obvious to see the annoyance building.
"My Captain will only offer this alliance once, Void." The little man sneered, "Join Yearo Seville or have your territory taken."
The pirate known as Void didn't respond, though to the Seville representative it seemed as though her attention was locked on him. In reality though, Void couldn't give a damn what the little man was saying or what Yearo wanted; it was a bluff anyway. She knew that her fleet was stronger than his, knew that the stretch of space that she'd taken for her own was safe from anything Seville or his mother could throw at her. No, the idiot just wanted her to think his name meant something in an attempt to gather more power.
"Ben Solo." When Maz's sharp voice silenced the entire Cantina, her eyes slid unseen to the figure in question,an almost smile breaking out on her face at the way he hunched his shoulders in greeting. The man was a mess, and yet somehow he was one of the best smugglers there were. A scoundrel just like his father; Ben Solo affected an air of roguish indifference that masked his rather affluent upbringing.
"Sasha," Void called sweetly pushing a few strands of silver hair behind the woman's ear, "Why is he still talking?"
Sasha purred and stretched out on her lap like a content loth-cat. "I dunno boss. Maybe he thinks he has something important to say. Something worth listening to?"
"That's a problem I've noticed with a lot of men," She sighed, fingers drumming a playful little beat. "It's so seldom true."
The alien sputtered indignantly at that, scalp crests stiffening aggressively. "Your disrespect has lasted long enough Void! My Captain will—"
"Do nothing." The pirate interrupted with that pleasantly indulgent expression on her visible face. "Cronan let's drop the charade here, we're all friends! The Seville pirate gang is barely worth a second look these days; they made the mistake of backing the wrong side in the Galactic Civil War and now they have to reap the admittedly lacking benefits. Whereas I've found myself a very successful little venture out here in the Outer Rim."
Sasha hummed a confirmation at that, cybernetic eyes blinking lazily as Void continued. "Yearo wants to build himself back up but problem is he's a thug who's had one, maybe two good ideas in his entire life. He wants my base, he wants my fleet, he wants my connections, and he probably wants the bragging rights of saying he's slept with one of the most powerful pirates in the galaxy. Problem is that he doesn't have jack shit to help him seize my assets by force and he doesn't have the charm to get my assets any other way."
When Maz passed by with the others, Solo, a girl, some kid wearing a leather jacket and the orange and white BB unit, the fingers stopped their tapping as the pirate leaned forward slightly. "We're done here."
It was an almost imperceptible shift in attitude; to anybody else it would have been unnoticable, but Sasha lifted her head as she felt the sudden tension bolt through Void. While the cyborg had no idea what had caused the change she knew that her captain had gone from mildly amused to towing the razor thin line of her temper almost instantly.
Cronan opened his mouth again, rather stupidly in Sasha's opinion, to argue. Rather than letting the little cretin get shot—and potentially jeopardize their welcome on Takodana—the cyborg straightened up and let just the threat of red shine in her eyes. "It was so nice seeing you. Give our regards to your boss."
"You will regret this, scum." The figure in black tilted her head slightly at the insult, palm flattening on the table as her other hand came to rest beside it.
Cronan, seeming to realize the mistake, took a step back as she half rose out of her seat. "You've issued your little warning, friend, now I'm going to issue mine. If Yearo so much as shows his stupid face anywhere near my territory all bets are off. If he tries to step foot in my space there won't be enough of him left over for a kriffin' DNA scanner. If you had half a brain in that gourd shaped head of yours, you would turn around and leave before I send you home in little pieces with a letter."
"Have I made myself clear?" Chalk it up to the fact that the rest of their small shore party was glaring at the alien, or simply the fact that the pirate Captain was absolutely fucking terrifying when pissed, but Sasha was rather satisfied to see Cronan scuttering away.
"Well," Sasha let a hand settle on the woman's arm, easing her back down. "That was fun."
"Send a message back to the fleet." Void barked, "Tell them that if that slimeball starts sniffing around they have full clearance to use excessive force. Yearo decides that he's going to test my conviction, I want his shitty little freighter scattered across the stars as warning."
"Harsh, but alright. Ki'dara will you grab us some drinks? The Captain seems a little tense." Which was a bit of a novelty in of itself; of the lot of them, Void was usually the one who kept a level head in most situations.
The mirialan nodded skimming a comforting hand over the Captain's shoulder as she slid out of the booth. "Be right back."
"Everything alright, boss?" Sasha asked, frowning. "You usually have a much higher tolerance for Cronan's shit."
"Who is that with Solo?" Void kept her head turned towards the group sitting with Maz, eyes flicking beneath the mask from the boy in a jacket that he shouldn't have and the girl. The girl from a desert planet who had never seen that much food in her life and was currently stuffing her face trying out every single thing.
"I have no idea." Sasha shrugged, though her eyes were focused more on the round BB unit. "Rumor is that the Resistance is looking for a droid… so is the First Order. It's probably worth a lot."
"No." Any other day, any other droid, and she would have pounced on that information for a chance to make a couple of quick credits.
But not today, not this droid.
"I want a word with the man," Void declared. "Privately."
Sasha studied her Commander, not for the first time wishing that she could see the woman's eyes. But Void never let the public see the entirety of her bare face, setting off a wildfire of rumors and speculation. Some suggested that she was a sith, her eyes shielded so nobody could see the bright yellow coloring of them. Others figured that she had to be blind, or otherwise horribly disfigured and was ashamed of the scarring. Sasha had seen Void without her helmet and knew that none of the rumors were true; it had nothing to do with being ashamed of her physical features and everything to do with a woman running from her past.
What the cyborg could tell though was that Void was dead serious and that was enough for her. Whatever the man accompanying Solo had done, she certainly didn't envy him.
"Take care of yourself. Please." Finn knew that the crushed look on her face was just another of those things that would linger and haunt him for however long he lived. But he couldn't do this; he didn't want to be a part of this war, of this fight that had already taken so much out of his life. It hurt, it felt like he was severing something inside of his heart, but he had to do this.
Finn turned back to the aliens, nodding to the both of them to confirm that he was ready to leave. They turned back to the door, to the exit and before he crossed that final threshold, that point of no return, he threw one last look back at her. But Rey was gone, moving deeper into the castle and away from him and to Finn it felt… fitting.
"I—hey!" The two aliens spun around at his startled shout, blasters raised at the person who had locked their hand down on his arm.
"Void wants a word with him." The woman explained, coolly assessing their weapons. "It probably won't take too long."
"Void?" Finn choked, gripping his own weapon as fear clawed up his throat. "Void the pirate queen?"
They had heard of her, name spoken in hushed whispers across the barracks like a ghost story. Except, there had never been any doubt that the woman in question was real, the real fear came from the risk of agitating one of the higher up officers by mentioning her. Most pirates had a tendency to try and avoid both the First Order and the New Republic, but there were a few that targeted either organization individually. Void irrefutably, indisputably hated the First Order.
"Look, you can't let them—she'll—" But the aliens were already shaking their hands in dismissal, the Gabdorian first mate growling out a guttural command that caused the cyborg to laugh.
"Take that up with the Commander." Eerie blue eyes pinned him in place more efficiently than the grip. "Stop struggling kid. If she wanted you dead outright you'd be dead outright. The boss just wants a word."
He was going to die. Finn was almost positive that he was about to die as he was led around the side of the castle, in the direction of a sleek, deadly looking starship. Standing in front of it, arms crossed and a blaster at her hip, was Void.
"Word of advice, kid." The cyborg whispered as they marched forward. "She's in a mood so I wouldn't say anything until you're spoken to. And don't try to lie."
Finn nodded at that, mouth suddenly dry as he tried to swallow back his fear. They came to a halt a few feet apart, prompting the pirate to drop her hands to her waist as she studied him. He couldn't help but fidget uncomfortably as she watched him, the silence stretching out uncomfortably. The woman was a pirate notorious not only for her hatred of the First Order, but also for her tendency to vent anyone she didn't like out of the airlock of her ship. She regarded him calmly, what was visible of her face so smooth and still that it might as well have been carved out of marble. Finn didn't know what to do, didn't know what to say or what she wanted, but maybe… maybe she would believe that he wanted nothing to do with the Order.
"What's your name?" The voice that spoke those words were oddly clipped, the tone and accent ringing familiarly in his ears though he couldn't place it.
"I—huh?" He blinked at the question completely at a loss. "Finn. My name is Finn."
"Finn. Are you a smuggler, Finn? You have the build of a man who's been trained for battle, your hands hold that blaster like they were born to it. Maybe you're a soldier." Her words were cold. "Are you, perhaps, with the Resistance? I don't think that you are."
"I—" He remembered the cyborg's warning and swallowed. "I was a soldier. I'm not anymore."
"Not anymore?" With a jerk of a nod the cyborg shoved him forward, nose-to-faceplate with the pirate. "What does that make you then? A scavenger picking from the bones of the dead?"
Before Finn could move she had a hold of the collar of Poe's—his—jacket. He wanted to struggle, wanted to fight back but he couldn't. Not only were there three different blasters aimed unwavering at him from the other members of the crew but Void had an iron grip on him. Her jaw was clenched, the muscle jumping in anger and the way she tilted her head let him see a long, crooked scar that caught from just under her ear and trailed a path along her mandible. As though someone had tried to cut the skin from her face.
"I have very little inclination to keep you alive Finn." She warned him quietly. "And judging by your reaction you know my reputation so you know that there's a narrow chance for you to survive."
The breath froze in his lungs as he stared at the helmet. "Wh—what do you want from me?"
"The truth." With a slight push he went stumbling backwards. "That jacket that you're wearing, it's a non-regulation flight jacket over thirty years old, out of style and out of commission though it's been patched and well cared for. The man who owns it is a Resistance pilot who would just as soon die as he would give it up."
Void looked him up and down, assessing his frame, locating his weaknesses. "How did it come to be in your possession?"
"It… it belonged to Poe Dameron." He explained. "He was fulfilling a secret mission for the Resistance when he was captured on Jakku by the First Order."
"What happened to Dameron?" She interrupted, anger bleeding into her words as she took a threatening step forward. "What did they do to him?"
There was an urgency in that question that surprised him, a slight shake in her tone that he could easily attribute to fear. It was obvious then that this woman had known Poe, had known him fairly well in fact. While Finn was curious as to how the Resistance pilot had managed to befriend the deadliest pirate in the galaxy, he wasn't exactly shocked. Poe Dameron was a special kind of person after all.
"They tortured him, they were going to execute him when I helped him escape. We stole a TIE fighter and tried to go back to Jakku for the droid, for BB-8 when we were shot down. We crashed and… I'm sorry but he didn't make it." He explained, tasting the greasy smoke on his tongue and feeling the burning grit of the sand on his hands. "I tried to help him, I really did. The ship got caught in a sand trap and this was the only thing I could pull out."
"Boss?" The cyborg asked worriedly as Void seemed to slump in on herself. It was so humanizing to see her, even if it was in grief, and Finn felt sympathy when she reached up to pinch underneath the mask and swipe her fingers across her cheek.
"I see." Even with the base tan of her skin it was obvious that Void had lost a few shades of color at the news. "Pfassk!"
She looked stricken as though Finn had just shown her the business end of his blaster.
"I'm sorry." Finn told her sincerely. "I wish it could have gone another way."
"I believe you." The words were quiet but they were genuine. "Be careful with Big Head and Red. They'll get you to where you need to go, but they also won't hesitate to kill you and steal the clothes off your back if it suits them. You'd be better off—"
The three of them paused at the sound that filled the sky; an ominous roar as though an impossible amount of energy was being passed through space. Lines of red fire, phantom energy that had torn a portion of space-time, unstoppable by any means… they collided in a shower with some immovable object, destroying everything in it's path.
"It was the Republic." Finn whispered, the words almost drowned out by the cries as the crowds gathered in the courtyard.
"Finn." The pirate reached out for him again, grabbing his shoulder and forcing his attention back down to her. "Find your friend, the girl. Get her to Ben Solo and get her to the Resistance. She's just as important to finding Luke Skywalker as that droid is, do you hear me? Tell Solo… tell him it's her."
Finn didn't understand the context behind those words, was hit with a million more questions, but he committed them to memory nonetheless. The intensity of her words weren't lost on him and whatever they meant—he only hoped that Ben could offer more insight—they were important. He nodded once at that, before turning and running back to the castle.
"...tell him it's her."
This was bad. This was horribly, catastrophically bad. If the First Order felt confident enough to fire their weapon, then they had to be ready to wage this war. They had to be confident enough in their power, in their search for Skywalker which meant—
Oh, kriff.
Sasha stepped forward, closing the distance between them to brace a hand against her shoulder. "We've got to go Commander."
"Prep the ship for launch; the First Order is coming for that droid." As if to prove her words a fleet of First Order ships swooped by overhead. "Get off planet, get out of range until this blows over and take out as many of those TIE fighters as you can in the process."
The other two members of her crew were already bolting up the hangar ramp, Loeb hanging back to make a sweeping gesture for Sasha. The cyborg hesitated, blue eyes locking on her face as her hand tightened on her shoulder. "What about you?"
Void smiled at that, a sharp pull of the lips that revealed her teeth in a savage expression as she reached up to press her thumb into the underside of her helmet. The panels slid into place, transparisteel plating sliding down to completely cover her face as the visual display flickered in a shine of lavender. Today was not a good day for her, not in the slightest. Too many of her ghosts were being dragged up out of her past for her to be happy and right now she was a simmering volcano of loss and grief that ached for some sort of release.
"I'll signal when I'm ready for pick up, Lieutenant." She explained easily, checking the charge on the blasters at her hip. "I've got a score to settle."
"Commander—" Sasha knew where she was coming from, knew what the news had done to the woman but that just meant the pirate was likely to make some sort of reckless decision. "You know you should come with us. Leave this fight behind."
"Never." Void spat, completely unreadable behind her helmet as her head tilted to the figure making their way down the ramp. "Loeb, tell me you've got them?"
"Calibrated and ready to go Commander." Her hands closed around the textured grip of the batons, hooking them into the holsters at her hip. "Voltage has been amped up and they're set to full strength."
"That's what I like to hear. The First Order took something from me I'm not letting them take anything else. You have your orders; get the hell out of here and await my signal. I have no plans of dying today but I don't expect you to fight in a battle that isn't yours." Sasha clicked her tongue at those words, lips pressing together as she finally released Void.
"Signal us." The Lieutenant repeated, watching her Commander nod before turning away. "A battle that isn't ours… you're an idiot."
