Rey had convinced BB8 to go and found herself alone in the forest. She could hear the Stormtroopers. Then he stepped out from behind a tree, dressed in black, his face masked. His red lightsabre blade burning brightly like none she'd ever heard of before. She fired, repeatedly, but he deflected each blast with the lightsabre as if it was nothing.

He strode towards her. He finally held up one hand, his palm facing her and she found she couldn't move. He stopped an arm's length in front of her.

"You tried to kill me, you don't know me at all, and you want to kill me."

"I know you're First Order, that's all I need to know." She responded, unable to move, unable to do more than breathe.

"You're afraid."

He walked around her, but she couldn't move to follow him. He put the blade of the lightsabre close to her face, she stared at him, trying to ignore the burning weapon so close to her. "There is something…..who are you?"

He held out his hand again, she could feel him in her mind and struggled to resist. She fought to keep her mind blank, the pain of his invasion bringing tears to her eyes. She couldn't stop him.

"You've seen it."

Then everything went black.

Poe wasn't used to being on the ground in a fight. He was good with a blaster, but this was ground combat, not his thing. They'd emerged from the rubble of the castle to see Stormtroopers had landed.

"Find the girl and the droid!" Maz looked directly at Finn.

"I don't have a weapon."

The small woman grasped his wrist and held it up, the lightsabre still in his hand. "Yes, you do!"

Finn activated it. He'd never used a weapon like this in his life, but it's what he had. Stormtroopers began firing on them.

Poe, Han, and Chewie returned fire, finding some amount of cover behind a fallen wall.

"Drop your weapons."

Poe realised they were surrounded by a dozen troopers, and yet his hand remained tightened around his blaster. He wasn't going to be taken again. His desire to not be captured a second time warred with the desire to keep those he was with alive.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Dameron."

He swallowed hard, hearing the unspoken words in the way Han said his last name. He let go of his gun. Poe knew as well as Han there was a time for risk taking and a time to wait for the chance. This was a wait moment, but there was no way they were taking him alive, not again.

"Hands on your heads."

Poe started to lift his hands. And he smiled. He'd never been so happy to see X-Wings in his life. His squadron was coming in low, as close to the lake as they could get, safely avoiding detection. They roared in, taking out the grounded TIEs before they knew what hit them. He was sure Snap was in command. He watched as the ships engaged both the remaining TIEs and the ground troops.

Again it was a strange feeling to be on the ground rather than the air, but when he felt the blaster shoved into his hands, he returned his focus to the present. He started firing again. He noticed the lead X-Wing, Snap's fighter, blasting with accuracy the parked TIEs, ground vehicles, troopers….his turns could be tighter, but training runs paid off, clearly. What he noticed from the ground could be honed, worked on, and maybe he should watch his squadron from the ground now and then, the perspective was certainly unique.

"It's the Resistance!" Han yelled. Hope sparked in each of them as they dove for cover from the aerial fire and debris from the hits. Poe and Han both grabbed for blasters while Finn went for the lightsabre.

The troopers were heading towards the transport, easy targets at this point. Finn saw Kylo Ren, carrying Rey towards the shuttle.

"REY!"

Ren's stride didn't change. Finn started to run towards her, but Poe grabbed the back of his jacket hard enough to stop him.

"We've got to save her!"

Poe stared at Ren for a second as the black clothed Sith-bad Jedi whatever he was strode along with Rey unconscious in his arms. "Not now. Not here. Come on."

Memories of his blaster fire hanging motionless in mid-air filled his mind. No, this was a wait moment as well.

The Resistance transport settled, Han and Poe stood there, waiting. BB8 had rolled up to them and now sat between the two men. General Organa was the first one off.

"Commander Dameron, good to see you're alive, we'll debrief later."

"Yes, ma'am." He spoke, just how tired he really was starting to set in when he saw someone standing just inside the shuttle. Someone who shouldn't have been there.

"Sariah!" They met halfway, holding onto each other with desperation mingled with joy in reunion. Their lips met, hunger for one another overriding any sense of caring about who was watching. He deepened the kiss and she reciprocated. He pulled her close, holding her against him as she clung to him, their kiss deep, hungry, passionate, and possessive.

"Commander."

He broke the kiss, breathless as he turned his head, sheepishly, to look at General Organa. The General was smiling. "Go on, and have the doctor check you out as soon as we get back to D'Qar."

"Yes, ma'am." He smiled back before he and Sariah walked to the transport, his arm around her waist and hers around his.

Leia turned to face Han.

"You changed your hair."

She nodded. A sense of sadness swept over her, why couldn't they be like the Dameron's? Why had this wall grown between them? "Same jacket."

Han shook his head. "No, new jacket."

Leia was the first to step forward and in a moment husband and wife were in each other's arms. Not as passionate as the younger couple had been, or even they had been when they were the age Poe and Sariah were now.

"I saw him."

Leia sighed. This was the wall between them. Their son.