Thank you for the reviews!! You guys are so awesome. :) I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up. I've had a crazy summer!
Enjoy!
Chapter III
General Leia Organa stood in the hangar, waiting for the best pilot in the Resistance, Poe Dameron, to come back from his supply run. It was a lowly task to give him, no doubt, but he never cared anyways. The whirring and thrumming overhead signaled that the cargo ship was waiting for permission to land. Off to her right, General Organa saw a man run forward with a headset. He spoke something into it, then gestured to the left, where there was a wide, open spot for the ship.
"General," a voice called from behind her. She turned to see none other than Admiral Ackbar, looking rather flustered.
"Yes, Admiral?"
"There have been reports of First Order ships coming into close range of our planet. They haven't come into the proximity of the atmosphere yet, though. We believe that most of them are just passing by, but we are still on the alert."
"Why would they be in the Outer Rim, especially near D'Qar?"
"We're still trying to figure that out ourselves, General."
"Hmm… well, thank you for the information. I'll be sure to tell everyone I can to be aware and be on the lookout. I'm assuming that all ships should also be wary of leaving the planet unseen, then?"
Admiral Ackbar nodded. "Yes, that would be wise."
General Organa bid him farewell just as Poe was coming out of his cargo ship. She furrowed her brows at the sight of a young woman in his arms.
"General!" he called.
"Dameron, what did you do this time?" she asked as she hurried forward to help him support her weight.
"I didn't do anything!" he said defensively. "General, I went to Mos Eisley to get the supplies you requested and when I was about to leave the planet I flew over the Sarlacc Pit. I saw an abandoned ship and decided to check it out."
He paused so that the general could narrow her eyes at him.
"You know you're not supposed to do anything on a planet that you have not been authorized to do."
"I apologize, General," Poe said. "But when I went into the ship, I saw this girl in one of the pilot's seats. She must've got in a nasty fight, because look at this-"
He pulled up the hem of her shirt as little as he could, respecting the girl's privacy. It was enough for the general to wince at the blaster wound.
"You'd better take her to the infirmary," General Organa said after a long pause. "How long was she out there before you found her?"
"When I found her she was still conscious, but she was unresponsive and didn't seem to be really focused or aware, I guess. The wound also looked pretty fresh; I don't think it even started to clot. Whoever did this to her was gone… I didn't see who did it."
"She looks like a smuggler," the general said quietly. She examined the girl's worn and worrisome face that somehow looked like it was relaxed and calm at the same time. It reminded her of Han.
Poe raised a brow. "I don't think she's a smuggler. Look at the pendant around her neck."
General Organa shook her head. "She needs medical help. We can talk about it later. I'll come and visit her after she's conscious again."
Poe nodded and hurried off in the direction of the infirmary.
"... so you're saying you found her in an abandoned ship by the Sarlacc Pit?"
"Look, I know it sounds weird, but I just had like this… like a feeling that someone was in the ship. And I'm glad I went in there! She probably would've died!"
"I'm not saying you did anything wrong, all I'm trying to say is that it would be good to know some more… information about her."
"All I know is that she's a Resistance sympathizer. Look at that wooden pendant. That's our symbol."
Rae-Lynn opened her eyes slowly to see who was speaking. There was that man, the one who had just picked her up all of a sudden from the ship that belonged to Ikao's men. And to her right, a woman with deep set eyes and high cheekbones was standing, her hair cropped short. She seemed to be in her older ages, perhaps somewhere around forty.
"Where… am I?" she managed finally. Her throat was dry and coarse.
The man and woman shared a glance.
"That's all you," the woman said finally.
The man sighed and stepped closer to the bed that Rae-Lynn was laying on. "I'm the one that found you, in case you don't remember. I brought you here to the Resistance base so we could fix you up. Also, that little pendant of yours? Dead giveaway. You shouldn't just go walking around with it. Someone who works for the First Order could see that and you'd be in loads of trouble."
Rae-Lynn narrowed her eyes. "You don't get to just talk to me like that for-"
"Poe, you should probably just leave," the woman said. "She needs rest. Maybe you could go tell General Organa that she's awake, then you and her can come back to talk to her."
Poe rolled his eyes and stalked out of the pristine white room.
"Where am I?" Rae-Lynn croaked after a while.
"Poe already told you," the woman said, cocking her head slightly. "You're on D'Qar, where the Resistance base is located. You should already know that, though."
Rae-Lynn squinted. "I should?"
"Oh, you don't have to keep up the act," the woman sighed. "You're safe here."
"I don't even know who any of you are."
"Just relax for the time being. We'll get you all sorted out soon," she smiled. "I'm Dr. Quo."
Rae-Lynn regarded Dr. Quo skeptically. "I'm-"
She cut herself off as an older woman came into the room, followed by Poe.
"Well, that didn't take very long," Rae-Lynn groaned.
"General Organa," Dr. Quo said, slightly nodding her head.
General Organa nodded in return and fixed her gaze on Rae-Lynn. "How is she?" The question was obviously meant for Dr. Quo, but Rae-Lynn felt bitter enough to answer for her.
"I'm fine."
General Organa's eyes seemed to narrow and she tilted her chin up. "So I see."
Rae-Lynn didn't suppress the amused smirk that bloomed on her lips. This general was going to be fun to argue with.
"What am I doing here? What do you want me with me?" she asked.
"All we wanted was to fix you up and learn a bit about you," Poe said simply. "I mean, I picked you up out of nowhere and saved you, so you could at least tell us who you are."
"Maybe you shouldn't have saved me. You should have just left me. At least that way I wouldn't be here."
"Mhmm, so you'd rather be dead?" Poe cocked a brow.
"Oh, my hero. Let me just fall to the ground and kiss your boots for saving me. Is that better, Your Highness?"
Poe only grinned lazily and leaned against the wall. "Much better."
Rae-Lynn scowled. "I'm not telling you anything."
"I thought you might say that," General Organa frowned.
A few moments passed in silence, along with several uneasy glances. The quiet atmosphere was abruptly broken when Poe started drumming his fingers on a small table by the door.
"Sorry," he mumbled when Dr. Quo looked at him sharply.
"Well," General Organa said finally, "you can leave and return to your… business as soon as Dr. Quo says you're in well enough shape."
Rae-Lynn sat up forcefully, attempting to protest and demand to be released sooner, before wincing and laying back down. She remembered that she had taken a blaster to her stomach and she should probably take it easy. Having to comply with the general's recommendations made her even more angry, though.
"Wait…" she said suddenly. "Where's my bag?"
General Organa nodded and gestured to Poe, who exited the room and returned within only a few seconds, the bag slung over his shoulder. He handed it to the general and avoided Rae-Lynn's raging eyes.
The general reached into the bag and pulled out just the lightsaber, leaving the other miscellaneous items behind.
"Would you care to explain why you have this?" General Organa asked, an inquisitive expression on her face. "Did you manage to trade something for it, or were just scavenging and happened to come across it?"
"Neither," Rae-Lynn snapped.
The general raised her brows. "Then would you like to tell me how you got it?"
"No." She made sure that it sounded harsh.
General Organa sighed and put the lightsaber back in the bag. "Very well. I suppose we can play that game."
Rae-Lynn watched in triumph as she left the room. The only thing that disappointed her was that the general had taken her bag.
Poe stood outside with the general in front of one of the many X-Wings, both of them thinking in silence. The only sound came from the occasional noise of ships landing and departing and small talk among the other pilots.
"You're not going to let her go for a while, are you?" he said. "Even after she's healed."
General Organa looked at him sharply. "I'm hoping that she'll tell us more about herself before she fully recovers. And it will be awhile, too. She got stitches, so she'll need time for those to do their work and she also has to get them removed. She'll probably be here for at least the rest of the week, possibly two, because Dr. Quo is using some of the fastest healing methods she can manage. She knows that the girl is uncomfortable and impatient."
Poe thought for a moment and then nodded. "She is very… on-edge. We don't even know what her name is."
"She seems more comfortable with you in the room, though," the general added. "Dr. Quo said that after we left she became much more tense and was very uncooperative. She wouldn't answer any questions, not even simple ones like her name, day of birth, home planet."
Poe looked slightly taken aback. "And?"
General Organa sighed and rubbed her temple. She could already feel a headache developing. "I suppose what I'm trying to say is that maybe you should spend some time with her and try to see if she'll open up to you, maybe give you some information."
Poe drew in a breath and shook his head. "So I'm basically gonna make her trust me and then tell you all her secrets."
The general contemplated that for a few seconds. "Not entirely. Think of it more as… as one of your missions. Besides, she could be useful to the Resistance." Especially if she turns out to be who I think she is.
"I guess it's worth a shot…" Poe groaned.
"Maybe you could bring her a meal sometime instead of Dr. Quo. Maybe tonight. That way it's not obvious or suspicious. Just try to make small talk and that may lead to deeper conversations."
"Anything for you, General."
Rae-Lynn woke up from her short nap to the sound of knocking. Whoever it was, they didn't wait for a response before coming in.
"Ugh… you."
Poe frowned. "That's a rude welcome. I even brought you food." He held out a small bowl that was filled to the brim with a dark brown curry.
Rae-Lynn scowled in return, but hearing her stomach growl was enough to make her reach out for the bowl.
Poe watched as she ate like she had never eaten before.
"So… what's your name?"
She regarded him with a bit of wariness before she replied. "Rae-Lynn."
"How did you get that blaster wound, Rae-Lynn?"
Rae-Lynn paused her eating momentarily to look at him with a brow raised. "Why should I tell you?"
Poe thought and then smiled. "Well, I was the one who rescued you. Don't you think I should know?"
"We've already been through this." Rae-Lynn swallowed a spoonful and then chewed her cheek. She knew that she owed him, even if she didn't want to admit it. It made her blood boil. "Still, even if I'm willing to accept the fact that you saved my life, it doesn't mean I have to tell you."
Poe put his hands up in surrender. "You're right, it doesn't. It's your choice."
Rae-Lynn's face was swept over with confusion. "You're being surprisingly calm."
He only shrugged and crossed his arms.
"Fine. I'll tell you why and how I ended up in that ship, okay? Then no more questions," she said finally. "You at least deserve an explanation, especially since I'd probably be dead by now if it weren't for you." I'd rather be dead than alive right now, though. She ended with a shrug to herself and another spoonful.
"So where I come from, a little place just a bit away from Mos Eisley, there's this complete idiot, Ikao. He thinks he's this huge crime lord but he's really not. An amateaur compared to the Hutts. He bought an F-11D blaster rifle from me for fifty credits, but he only gave me twenty. So naturally that made me mad because that's the only way I get my money-"
"Smuggling and trading?" Poe cut in.
"Yep," Rae-Lynn replied. She didn't sound embarrassed, not even slightly. As a matter of fact, she almost sounded proud. "Anyways, there was this fight that I got into in a cantina with a guy, Fenro, who works for Ikao."
"Is that how you got hurt?"
Rae-Lynn looked utterly offended. "No. Of course not. I would've killed him, but the owner of the cantina… Anyways, Fenro delivered me a message from Ikao and so did another guy- well, a Dug. His name's Ubis Nuiz, you probably know him, the amazing pod racer, the one that's supposedly related to Sebulba."
Poe nodded and waited for her to continue.
"And I fixed up his pod because I'm kinda good at that stuff, and he was supposed to give me one thousand, five hundred credits but instead I only got a fraction of that. So Ubis came pretty close to dying… That's beside the point, though." She paused again to finish the rest of the curry, taking her time and savoring it. It was so much better than the lousy meals she made.
"When I got home I ate dinner, then Ikao's men knocked me out and took me to some abandoned factory or something, where Ikao was waiting. He pretty much just told me I had served my purpose and he didn't need me any more, and told his guys to take me to the Pit. They knocked me out again and when I woke up I was on the ship. I was in restraints, but I figured out a way to get free by…"
She stopped herself. Did she really want to tell him how she did it? Then he would only have more questions. And what if he went back to that high strung general and told her everything?
"But what?" he asked.
Rae-Lynn sighed. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise that you won't ask any more questions today, alright? Just listen."
Poe nodded. "That's reasonable."
"I got out of them with my lightsaber- the idiots were too stupid to take my bag- and cut through the restraints." She stopped to see how he would react, but his expression stayed the same and he seemed to be listening intently. "Then when one of the pilots came to get me, I used the hilt of my lightsaber to knock him out. I mean, I was gonna kill him, but that would look bad on me so why not let him see how he likes it, right? Anyways, the other guy came after him and by that point the ship had landed. So we fought for a while, I won't go into detail for sake of time, but then he opened the exit and I stood in front of it so he couldn't get out. I'm sure you can guess what happened next," she said and pointed to her stomach. "He got away after that. Then I looked in the Sarlacc Pit, which was stupid because I almost fell in, and then I went back in the ship to find some way to stop the bleeding but by that point I was already losing consciousness. When you found me… well, I kinda forget the rest. I think I remember you saying something about the pendant I wear."
"Yeah, that symbol is the Rebel Alliance's- well, now it's the Resistance's," Poe said.
"But that doesn't make any sense. My sister gave it to me before she-" Rae-Lynn didn't want to finish. She bit her lip, keeping her face composed, showing no emotion.
Poe gave her a knowing look and gently patted her shoulder.
She pulled away, unnerved by the gesture. He looked embarrassed and moved a distance away from her.
"Well," he said, breaking the silence, "your sister was obviously a Resistance sympathizer."
Rae-Lynn gave him a look that resembled disgust. "She couldn't have been. Our parents never got involved in that stuff, so we didn't even know what that little symbol meant. Besides, Zhenna couldn't have learned about it at the-"
Poe's brows knit together. "At the what?"
"Nothing," Rae-Lynn snapped. "No more questions, I told you that already… Poe. Now go away."
"Wow… okay. I guess this is the thanks I get," he said as he stood.
Rae-Lynn glared at him. "Do you want me to thank you for saving me? Again? Was earlier not enough?"
"Yeah," he shrugged, "a nice 'thank you' wouldn't hurt."
"Whatever. You're just going to go back to your little leader or whoever she is and blab everything."
Poe gave her a look that was lined with silent apology and left the room without a word.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Follow, favorite, and review! :)