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Chapter Eight
The floor was covered in sweat and smudges from countless sessions of exercise. Poe could see the condensation of his breath with every push off the floor; his arms burning from the strain of completing another set. The routine was keeping him sane in an endless bout of restlessness. He hated feeling caged. Finding himself back in the clutches of the First Order was a blow to his morale he didn't think he'd ever experience again.
Exhaustion set in and Poe rolled over, slick and gasping. Now was when he liked to pass the time by coming up with elaborate schemes for escape.
The problem was none of them would work.
The bars were secure - he checked a dozen times. The bed was a bare mat of some synthetic material - highly uncomfortable. Poe had complained about it when his wardens were zapping him with their current brand of torture stick. Apparently they didn't take constructive criticism well. The only other feature of his cell was his toilet, which was a hole in the floor that no sentient species could fit through. Any tools that could have been be useful were taken from him on Ryloth. Not very polite, though that seemed to be the theme the First Order was going for.
The pilot ran his hands up his face and then into his hair. What was he going to do? He doubted that there were any deserting Stormtroopers willing to spontaneously rescue him, but what about a rescue from the outside? Nah, that would be a waste of resources, which they did not have in the first place. He was on his own.
There was no way to keep track of the time.
Poe was going mad.
Ryloth felt like weeks ago. The pilot wondered if it were only days. So far, this vacation consisted of a torture session, followed by a Kylo Ren mind invasion, followed by more torture, then finally the silent treatment. He had six meals wheeled to him by droids since he last got poked in the ribs with a cattle prod. Was that a meal a day? Two? He only knew that it wasn't enough. He was always hungry.
No plans. The Resistance was in dire straits. The General was likely dead. This was bad. Really bad.
Poe couldn't give up. He was still breathing, which meant he was still thinking. He knew he could weasel out of this situation. He would just need to wait for the right opportunity to present itself.
And there it was.
The sound of approaching people made Poe sit bolt upright from the floor. Was it going to be another torture session? He didn't have any more information to give anyone. Poe couldn't hide anything from Kylo Ren, though he tried till his nose bled from the effort. Maybe the officers were bored like he was? Or maybe it was time to dispose of him.
Five figures were coming up the corridor. Two troopers in front, another two flanking a woman. Another prisoner?
No... it was Rey.
"REY!" He yelled, scrambling to the bars to get a good look at her face. He could barely recognize her with her matted hair and bandaged skin. At the sound of her name, her eyes snapped up to meet his. It was like lightning struck him. There was something different burning within her - a desperation that he couldn't grasp. His mouth fell open to say something else, but what she did next stole the words from out of his mouth.
With a passionate howl, Rey threw out her chest and rocketed the two troopers in front of her forward. The two that were bracing her stumbled back from the backlash, and Rey nimbly used the momentum to swing her legs forward, then over her head in a somersault. The troopers chose to drop her rather than lose their balance. In the seconds they saved, the soldiers drew their weapons. At the same moment Rey drew something else from under her medical gown.
The familiar sizzle of energy and redness of the blade surprised everyone.
"What… the…" Poe said dumbly - for once a spectator in a brawl. How the hell did Rey get Kylo Ren's lightsaber?
The confusion didn't last long as two of the Stormtroopers started to back down the hallway using suppressive fire. Rey wasn't skilled enough to reflect the shots, so she chose to keep low and dodge instead. Poe cheered her on until she moved in front of his cell, including him in the line of fire.
"Hey hey hey! Fish in a barrel here!" He dived under the bunk for a little cover while Rey clumsily sliced through the bars and freed him. Meanwhile, the Troopers made it most of the way down the corridor and were holstering their weapons to expedite their retreat. The remaining two advanced.
"Rey watch out!" Poe shouted, noting that her footwork was sloppy. She looked like a puppet held together by prayer. She wasn't going to hold out for much longer against trained soldiers with her guard down like that.
A blaster managed to graze the girl's shoulder, causing her to scream and nearly drop the saber. In a simmering fury, she reached out with the force and grabbed the enemy that shot her, chucking him into the other like he were a figurine. They both clattered into a twitching heap.
It was Poe's time to shine. The pilot vaulted through the still glowing exit Rey had cut for him. With an improvised flying kick, he attacked the writhing pile and stomped some wrists to earn himself a pair of blasters. He grinned in triumph as he leveled them at the pair of troopers. "Not your lucky day my friends." He turned to Rey who was clutching her cauterized shoulder.
"You okay back there?"
Rey let out a shuttered breath. Her latest actions aggravated her leg, and now her shoulder was spasming in agony. She couldn't get from her half-kneel to a standing position. "The other two…" She wheezed.
Poe whirled around and took a second to aim. He fired a single shot and downed one of the troopers at an impressive range, just before the other turned the corner. "Shit. I only got one. The other is going to raise the alarm. We need to book it." He returned to covering the disarmed duo.
"I can't move…" Rey's voice was faint and slightly hysterical.
Poe looked to the other two troopers that he had at gunpoint. "I have an idea."
Kylo Ren longed for a sanisteam. Unfortunately corporate obligations awaited him the moment he parted from Rey. In the hallway, General Noran shifted to attention the moment she identified the Supreme Leader's silhouette. She had been waiting for him to finish his extended 'interrogation' of his prisoner - for how long Ren didn't want to know. She was quick to catch him up to speed with the galaxy, making her way down a clipboard of events with expertise.
None of it was good news.
The trouble at Ryloth was starting to surface in a series of political incidents. Armitage Hux's death sent ripples of instability throughout the First Order ranks; their shareholders were similarly not happy. Kylo Ren knew he was never going to win any popularity contests. It was widely known that he had his own agenda, which was fine when Snoke or Hux could forward the First Order's objectives without hindrance. But now their direction was uncertain with a unstable Sith at the helm.
Despite their strong opinions, no one wanted to be the one to try and tell Kylo Ren what to do, so administration was at a standstill. This suited the self appointed Supreme Leader. It gave him time to think.
The New Republic was whipped into a frenzy once they realized a large chunk of their leaders were decimated in an unknown attack. Most their fingers were pointing at the First Order. Kylo Ren didn't know if he wanted to correct them or not.
"There are rumors that a mercenary army is forming." General Noran mentioned, trying to keep pace with the long limbed Supreme Leader.
"First the Rebellion, then the Resistance… what will they call themselves this time?" Kylo Ren hissed. He didn't need any more enemies to contend with.
"They are retaliating for Ryloth." Noran stated what Ren already knew, making his eye twitch. None of the First Order understood what had happened there, and none of their investigations could come to any reasonable conclusions. For once, their ineptitude was soothing. They didn't know the extent of Rey's powers. If they did, the First Order wouldn't let her live.
"We believe that instead joining the Resistance, the last of the Resistance has joined this new army." Noran added.
"Who is leading them?" There were very few left that could. Maz Kanata was Kylo Ren's first guess, but that woman didn't like to go all-in when it came to war. She was a survivalist, like Ren's father.
"Ezra Bridger, sir."
This made Kylo Ren slow his pace. General Noran stumbled into him and then backed away horrified. Ren didn't seem to notice as he fell deep in thought. The memory of a young girl's screams echoed about his mind made him wince. He shook his head to dispel the sound, cursing Rey for ripping down the shielding around his heart.
Ezra was a Force-user and a talented one. Kylo Ren had thought him dead since he had disappeared over twenty years ago. If he had heard even a whisper of that man, Ren would have had him assassinated.
This was a bad turn of events.
"Has he attempted to contact us?" He resumed his briskness, entering the bridge and earning several harried glances.
"Yes sir. He sent a recorded hologram requesting a meeting last night. We have sent no response. Do you wish to?"
"Yes. Set up a meeting. I do not care where, as long as its soon. The usual terms." No weapons, no shows of force, no long winded diatribes. He doubted Bridger would follow them.
The General nodded and scurried away to make the necessary preparations. Kylo Ren wondered if his choice to replace Hux with this glorified secretary was too obvious. Noran seemed more suited towards being an executive assistant rather than a General.
The rest of the bridge crew were eerily silent. Kylo Ren turned to a helmsman, "Prepare to leave orbit and set a course for Lothal."
The Helmsman did as ordered, sending the crew into a flurry of movement.
Kylo Ren stared out the bridge window, feeling the subtle changes in vibrations as the engines began to change over. The trip should only take ten minutes, enough time for his prisoners make their way to the docking bay. Lothal would be a good place for them to make a break away. If Ezra Bridger was leading this new hybrid army, then it was likely that it would be amassing somewhere in Lothal's system. Bridger would like to stick to familiar territory.
It surprised Kylo Ren that Ezra would even bother trying the diplomatic route. The Supreme Leader closed his eyes and recalled the face of a young dark haired girl with a coy smirk and deep set brown eyes. The last time he saw her she had been screaming as he dropped a building on her.
Ezra Bridger's daughter had been one of Luke Skywalker's favorite students.
For combat armor, a Stormtrooper's uniform was not very mobile. It was quick to put on however, though Poe had to assist Rey while trying not to stare at parts of her. It was difficult considering how distracting her wounds were. He felt sick imagining the First Order using fire to extract information. There was also some telling marks on her arms that made him wonder how far they went... and if she was still the same girl he left on Ryloth.
Poe was poor crutch for Rey, but they managed to hobble down the corridor. She was slowing them down so much that he debated throwing her over his shoulder, but he didn't want to fight with her over it. From his experience, girls of her caliber generally balked at that sort of thing.
As they rounded the corridor, two First Order officers and three Stormtroopers leveled blasters at them.
Poe kept walking. Confidence was key for dramatic escapes.
"We managed to subdue the prisoners, but not for long!" He shouted, hoping that they wouldn't look at how loose the armor was on Rey. "If anyone needs them alive, you'll need to send down a medical droid." He wasn't exactly lying. The Stormtroopers they stripped had taken some hard blows in the head to keep them down.
The group lowered their weapons and started working out who would go check on the crazy Jedi and pilot, and who would be the ones to tell their superiors what happened. Poe passed them, picking up the pace. He needed to get out of the detention block before the Troopers found their naked comrades in an unconscious pile.
Rey was slipping at his side.
"C'mon girl, you got more salt and vinegar in you yet." He whispered loud enough to be heard over the shouts behind them.
Rey took several shallow breaths to try and fight the urge to sink to the floor and give in to the blackness creeping in at the edges of her vision. "You should go… he won't kill me… but he might kill you. Take his fighter... he said he made it easy..." She tried to shake Poe off, sliding to her knees, but this only made him strengthen his grip.
Poe looked around. The narrow maintenance hallway they found was deserted. He pulled Rey up and leaned her against a wall. "Fuck that. I'm not leaving you behind." He watched as her helmeted head rolled back and she slumped in his arms.
"HEY!" He jumped at his own voice, then shushed himself and shook the girl. "Hey… I know you've been through a lot, but neither of us is going to make it if you doze off on me. I'm going to carry you okay? What were you saying about a Fighter?" He tried to coax her to stay awake, but she was at her limit.
"His fighter… ready to go… you need to take it."
Poe raised an eyebrow, his eyes flickering to the saber at her side. "Are you talking about Kylo Ren's silencer?" He didn't understand, but they ran out of time. He heard an alarm blaring from the nearby detention block. "Shit. Hold on Rey. We're getting out of here." He hoisted her over his shoulder, the armor making things awkward.
He jogged down the maintenance hallway and came out near engineering. Poe knew most the schematics for the basic ships in the First Order fleet, but that information was only handy if you knew where the hell you were going. Was he facing the bow, or was he coming from the port side? He circled around, some officers giving him a weird look for having a trooper slung over his shoulder.
"Escaped prisoners!" He said loudly once he sensed that he reached the threshold of suspicion. "Keep an eye out for two Resistance fighters! They were last seen slipping out of the detention block." He hurried along, their eyes now in the direction he came from.
Security was tighter nearer the hangar bays now that the word was spreading they had escapees. Poe waited for some personnel to be distracted before ducking into a closet and putting Rey down. She would draw too much attention on his shoulder. He needed a plan.
He removed her helmet. She was unconscious. Rage rolled inside of him. How could Leia's son do this to her? He took a moment to shed her armor and check her over for more serious wounds now that she couldn't protest. He wasn't a medic, but her swollen leg, singed shoulder and multiple burns looked bad. What had her done to her? And why?
He scanned the room, looking for anything he could use to transport her more covertly. They were in a janitorial closet; not too shabby if you wanted something inconspicuous. An empty laundry cart with a canvas insert drew his attention. He pulled out the bag and held it out to inspect. It might just fit Rey.
Careful of her wounds, Poe bundled her up in the sack. He threw in some towels to mask her shape before gingerly slinging it over his back. Now he was just a Stormtrooper transporting goods to the hanger. Nothing suspicious to see here. He left the closet like a man on a mission.
Officers were running every which way, some with blasters. One had what looked to be a rocket launcher, which made Poe do a double take. He kept walking through the chaos and when anyone eyed him funny he wandered over and chatted them up.
"I heard about the escapees, do you know where they were heading?" He asked a particularly perceptive soldier.
His fellow trooper shook his head. "No. But why aren't you going out with the rest of them?"
"Direct orders from his Supremeness to get this gear to his ship." He said in an impatient drawl, shrugging the shoulder supporting the bag full of Rey. "More important than rebels apparently."
"Huh." The Trooper replied, a hint of amusement in his tone. He waved Poe through to the vehicles with no further problems.
Poe was glad for a helmet to hide his grin.
Kylo Ren's ship was already prepped. The technicians were standing by looking confused. Poe thought this all very peculiar, and unfortunately so did the techs. Poe wandered over to the silencer and started to load Rey as causally as he could. A member of the ground crew rushed over with anxiety written all over him. Poe guessed that it sucked being the new guy no matter what side you were on.
"Is he coming?" He said nervously. "With this course change to Lothal I wasn't sure if he would still be flying out."
Poe stared at him for a second. "Yeeeah... Yeah he's coming. Disengage the fuel lines, he was right behind me." The technician looked relieved to be given clear orders. While his back was turned, Poe boarded the vessel. Rey took up too much room in the small cockpit. He placed her at his feet for now. He started the vessel's internal systems, looking quickly at the displays for the moment the technicians removed their gear from the fuselage.
"This will be easy. Smooth even. Real smooth." Poe said to himself, coaxing his courage to not leave him now. He started the ignition and flipped some switches. The ground crew hesitated only a moment before starting to yell; realizing that this strange Stormtrooper intended to take off.
"Too late buddy." He took off his First Order issue bracers and tested the grip of the controls. Poe engaged the thrusters and lifted himself free of the other vehicles. It was madness on the deck once they realized they had an unauthorized departure in progress. Several blasters started to fire, but the shots only ricocheted, one blowing up a canister of fuel.
Poe gunned it for the bay doors, nothing in his way.
There were so many things wrong with how easy it was. Poe's head was working a mile a minute to figure out what he missed. Wasn't there protocol in place to lock down the exits in emergencies? Why was the silencer ready to go? He glanced down at the sack between his knees. How did Rey know it would be ready, and how did she get Kylo Ren's lightsaber? Was he helping her? No. That made no sense. It was more likely that this was some sort of trap.
"Pretty girl between your legs and all you can think about is how this doesn't feel right." Poe muttered to himself as he watched other fighters scramble to launch behind him. It was futile. Kylo Ren's ship was fast, and he only needed to dodge a few shots before he fell out of their range.
A billion stars greeted him as he crossed into freedom.
The cruiser behind him disappeared in under five minutes, but his adrenaline still coursed hotly through his veins. "Well. You did it Dameron! Again. Now what?" He checked his positioning with whatever database this thing was equipped with, his eyebrows raising to his hairline at it's output. "Lothal system? Well isn't that our lucky day!"
Poe knew just where to celebrate.
