*A/N… this chapter will kind of jump around to different parts of the ship, just as the films do. I'm hoping it makes sense outside of my brain. If not…. so sorry! I worked insanely hard on this chapter since it's number 20! I hope you enjoy it!*
The halls around her are mostly empty as the night falls over the ship. Stella pauses, steadying her shaking hands and leans against a wall to calm her down. If she continues down this path and helps BB-8, she's certain she'll lose Kylo Ren. If she loses him, what was the point of all this? She sighs, resting her palms on her kneecaps and bending forward. She inhales deeply. If she doesn't help BB-8, there goes one more creature she has the chance to protect. As she exhales, Stella shakes her head and straightens up. She can't go through with this. Her brisk steps carry her across the massive ship, Stella still can't believe how enormous these Star Destroyers truly are, and to the doorway Brynn had pointed out earlier.
"Brynn I need to t— oh." She stops mid sentence, looking around the vacant control room. Just as her friend had described, the walls are shredded and sliced open from Kylo's lightsaber. The man really does have anger issues. BB8 chirps at Stella, zipping to the opposite corner of the room. "Sorry, I thought she'd still be here." She mumbles, rubbing her upper arm.
Stella stares at the droid, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Can I ask you something?" She begins, crouching down to its level. Slowly, the robot inches a tiny bit closer. "Do you think Brynn can actually get you home?" Bb8 beeps wildly in response. Stella giggles.
"I'll take that as a yes?" She grins, raising a brow. He flicks a thumbs up to her. "And if I don't help, would it make me a bad person?"
The droid falls silent and Stella hangs her head. Blowing out her cheeks as she sighs, she nods. "Yeah, I figured." She kneels on the ground, folding her hands in her lap and looks up at him. "I'm sorry. There's part of me that desperately wants to help you, but I can't go behind Kylo Ren's back. We haven't had an argument in over 24 hours and I'd really like to keep it that way.." She shrugs her shoulders. "I hope you can forgive me." BB8 chirps as Stella crawls to her feet again.
"You know, you're a pretty big deal back where I'm from." She laughs softly to herself. "My little sister, Luna, she has this shirt with you on it and it says 'let's roll'. She absolutely loves it."
Rolling back and forth at her feet, almost excitedly, BB 8 beeps.
"Do people here just know how to understand robot sounds? Is there some class they have to take to learn 'droid'?" She murmurs, shaking her head.
The door behind Stella hisses open, surprising her. She whirls around, thankful to see Brynn standing there and not Kylo.
"Oh good! You're here!" Brynn smiles, keeping her voice just above a whisper. "There's been a change of plans."
Stella swallows the nerves rising in her throat and shakes her head. "Listen, Brynn.. I can't help you with this. I'm out." She states, matter-of-factly.
"Of course you can!" Brynn furrows her brows. She grasps at Stella's hands. "Stel, if we get him out of here, we can go too!"
"What?" She jerks her hands away, backing as far from her as the small space will allow.
"Come on!" She flings her arms in the air, dropping them heavily at her sides. "You and I don't belong here! We're on the wrong side."
Stella crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm not on any side."
"You're sleeping around with the leader of The First Order, Stella. That's pretty clearly his side."
"Exactly." She nods, pursing her lips. Under any other circumstances, Stella would correct the 'sleeping around' remark, but not today. "I'm on his side. Not the First Order, not the Resistance, not the Jedi. Just his. And I'm staying out of this. I'm sorry, Brynn."
The blonde steps closer to Stella, narrowing her eyes. "And what do you intend to do? Run off and tell him? You actually think I'm going to let you mess this up? I'm getting away from this hell, Stella. You aren't going to stop me." Brynn's voice shakes as she quickly whirls around to the droid. She crouches in front of BB-8, murmuring under her breath. A loud beep pulses from the robot, followed by a familiar voice.
"Brynn? What's going on?" Poe Dameron. Stella would know that voice anywhere. She's still convinced her sister Natalie only watched the movies to look at him. (Not that she can blame her for that.)
"Poe, we have a problem." Brynn replies, speaking into the holo-projector. "We need to do this now. No waiting on the transport."
Stella's jaw slacks open. "You're one of them?" She whispers, completely shocked. Brynn ignores her, with a shake of her head. Her blonde hair falls across her creasing forehead.
"Who's with you? Is everything okay?"
"She's no one!" Brynn spits, grabbing Stella's arm and opening the door. She drags her into the vacant hall, barely reacting as Stella tries to free herself. "I'm going to the reactor now. Is your slicer there?"
"Yeah, Finn's on it. Get down there and we'll figure it out from there." Poe assures her through the robot's speakers.
"Brynn, stop!" Stella yanks her arm back, forcing the blonde to halt for a moment. "You're with the Resistance?"
"Stella, I'm getting off of this ship. FN 2187 opened the door for this! No one has gotten away from the First Order and lived to talk about it like him. I want that. And This droid is my ticket out." She tugs on her arm, pulling her into an elevator and to the lowest level of the ship.
After leaving Stella's chambers, Kylo Ren hurries past this own and toward Hux's. It's late enough in the evening that the General will have retired from the bridge for the night. His thoughts run rampant, darting between confusion and paranoia. The girl Stella was with seems odd. He sensed something different about her, and it's chilled him ever since their meeting. Stella's behavior around this woman was equally as suspicious. If he didn't know any better, he'd think she was hiding something from him. His lip twitches into a snarl at the thought as his fist pounds heavily on General Hux's door.
As the door slides open, revealing a very confused Hux, Kylo barges inside.
"Something I can help you with, Supreme Leader?" Hux scowls, crossing his arms over his chest as the dark clad man shoves his way into the suite.
"I need information on one of your officers."
"You have full access to that information, Ren." He grunts, moving into the living quarters and retrieving his tumbler of whisky from the table. The honey-colored liquid swirls in his glass as he raises it to his lips, tilting it back. "Why would you need my assistance?"
"I don't need a reason, General." Kylo spits. "Her name is Brynn. That's the only information I have on her."
A smirk creeps over Hux's features. "I assume this involves Stella somehow?" He crosses to his data pad, snatching it up and begins searching for the name.
To Hux's credit, the lack of legitimate names for his troopers made finding this single officer, out of hundreds of thousands, quite simple. Even though Kylo Ren would never admit it, the General does have a decent system. There are only 4 Brynns in the datapad and Ren, staring over Hux's shoulder, points to the image of the blonde haired woman from the hall. "That one." He instructs. Hux nods, bringing up her information on the large holoprojector in his office.
"I vaguely recognize her." Hux muses, tilting his head upon entering the office. "Why is she of such importance? According to this, she is assumed dead after the Supremacy's destruction."
"Hm." Kylo almost smirks. He mentally retracts his previous compliment of the system. His eyes drag over the information on the screen in front of them as Hux reads it aloud.
"Brynn Kase. The daughter of Ian Kase, a special forces pilot in the Imperial Military. She attended the Skystrike academy on Montross at 13 under the pilot training program." He pauses, raising a brow. "But was removed from the program at age 16. Captain Skerris noted that her behavior was too erratic to move forward with the training."
"Erratic?" Ren repeats, creasing his forehead. "Why was she placed on the Supremacy with a history of erratic behavior?"
"Because of her lineage," Hux continues, ignoring the obvious disapproval from his (unfortunate) superior. "She was returned to the Corulag academy for basic reconditioning and programming. She exceeded expectations and upon her graduation in 27 ABY, was placed as a desk officer on the Supremacy. In the 7 years of her employment, there have been no incidents regarding her behavior."
"Much like your previous traitor, FN 2187." Ren grumbles, eyes narrowing at the screen. Hux tosses back the remainder of his drink, sick and tired of hearing of the one anomaly in his otherwise perfect and loyal army. "This officer is on this ship. She stowed away on a transport before the Supremacy was destroyed. Is it typical for an officer to keep herself out of your system, General?" He mocks.
"Impossible." Hux shakes his head, growling through gritted teeth. "Each person was accounted for upon arrival on their designated location. 1200 to the Absolution, 1600 here, etcétéra."
The argument between the two men escalates to yelling, neither one willing to back down. An urgent message appears on the holoprojector, blocking the image of Brynn with a large red box. Lieutenant Mitaka appears in her place, a nervous look in his eye.
"General," he flinches, clearly not expecting Ren to also be present. "Supreme Leader. You're needed on the bridge. An incoming ship has been detected on our radars and it's assumed to be the Millenium Falcon."
"Start talking hacker." Finn's attempt at a tough voice earns a ghost of a smirk from Stella as it comes through the droids speakers. "She's in the reactor."
"Y-y-you know, I'm doing you a f-favor." The accented voice stutters.
"That guy? The one from Canto Bight?" Stella raises a brow, speaking more to herself than the listening Resistance members and Brynn.
Brynn stops her hurried work at removing the cover of a control panel. "How would you possibly know that?" She hisses, twisting her neck to stare at Stella.
She simply shakes her head, hugging her arms around herself in response. Brynn rolls her eyes, turning back to the panel and prys the cover off with a grunt. It thuds against the ground, causing Stella to jump at the loud noise.
The hacker begins explaining, in a broken speech pattern, exactly what Brynn should be seeing in front of her. "You need to d-d-disconnect the green w-w-wire, and attach i-it to the blue." He drones on, giving her a list of instructions. Stella bounces on her toes, considering jumping over the droid blocking her exit and making a run for it. She stares longingly out the door into the hall. Maybe someone will walk by and she can yell for help.. Or not. She signs in exasperation, turning her attention to Brynn.
"What exactly are you doing?" She raises a brow, watching carefully as Brynn manipulates the wires just as the hacker had said.
"Don't get distracted, Brynn." Poe warns. It's clear he doesn't believe her that Stella isn't worth worrying about. "DJ almost is locked on to their system."
"G-g-g-got it." The hacker, now identified as DJ interjects calmly.
"Get to the hangar. We'll meet you at the pick up location. BB-8, you know where to go, right buddy?"
The droid beeps in response. Brynn pokes her head out of the reactor's control room, glancing in both directions and nods an all clear to the droid. He zips out in front, leading the way to the hangar. Stella holds her ground, determined not to follow.
"Stella come on." Brynn urges, gesturing her forward with and exaggerated arm motion.
"No. You got this far. Just get out of here and leave me out of this. Please." She pleads.
Brynn drops her head back, rolling it on her shoulders with a groan. She reaches for her belt, pulling out her blaster pistol and pointing it at Stella's chest. "Don't do this the hard way, stel. You'll thank me for it eventually."
Stella winces. She should have expected this, but she truly thought Brynn was different than all these first order zombies. She swallows hard, clenching her trembling hands into fists at her sides as she moves into the hall. The blaster is shoved into her lower back, her so called friend holding it against her tightly as they make their way to the main hangar.
Kylo Ren and Hux rush to the bridge, Hux cursing under his breath about the incompetence of his right hand man. The entire bridge is bustling with activity. Lieutenant Mitaka stands in the middle, knees shaking as he whirls in all directions, trying to calm the multitude of officers shouting at him.
"Enough!" Ren barks, silencing the room.
"What exactly is the problem?" Hux glares at his Lieutenant, dragging a hand through his gelled back hair.
Quietly, the lieutenant points to the nearest screen. Red orbs pulse all around the Finalizer. Not just the Millenium Falcon, but at least twenty Resistance ships surround them according to the screen. Hux furrows his brows, turning to the 360 windows in the bridge. Not a single ship is in sight.
"Your system seems to be broken, General." Kylo growls, his adrenaline rushing after the mention of the Falcon. He is thought this could be their chance to take the Resistance down. "It's no wonder Snoke never trusted the Finalizer as his flagship."
Hux glares darkly, slamming a fist on the window. He turns sharply on his heel and shoves an officer from his seat. He quickly begins pressing buttons, attempting to fix the glitching system.
A shrill alarm pulses through the bridge, signaling an unauthorized ship launch. Kylo jerks his head toward Hux, silently questioning if that was his doing. The General subtly shrugs a shoulder. This is new territory even for him. The two leaders of the First Order glare at each other, debating if this alarm is another glitch or something to worry about. Ren scoffs, eventually deciding to find out for himself and storms off toward the main hangar.
His hand lingers over the lightsaber attached to his belt. No matter how this plays out, real or not, he is fully prepared to destroy something in a burst of fury. Perhaps he should enlist the help of Kuat-Entralla Engineering to build his own flagship. His General is clearly incapable. Ren's thoughts are interrupted by shouting echoing from the hangar. He bursts through the entrance, igniting his saber just in time to see a TIE fighter zip out of the hangar and into the inky black of the galaxy.
He sneers. "Take that ship down!" His voice cracks with rage, the veins in his neck slamming against the skin. This was the work of the Resistance. "All fighters!"