Chapter 35: Treasonous Dreams

As Lyra slept that night she found her mind absent of her usual nightmares. Instead, she found herself dreaming of something more pleasant than she could have ever hoped for.

Turning onto her side in the bed, she saw Poe staring at her, he was naked under the bedsheets and smiled over at her as if no time had passed between them since being separated at the evacuation of D'Qar.

As Poe smiled over at her, Lyra couldn't help but frown.

"This is a dream. You aren't really here."

Poe smiled, reaching out to stroke a strand of her hair back behind her ear. "Then it's a good dream, enjoy it."

Lyra scooted closer to him and kissed him gently. "This isn't fair, I want to be with you, really be with you."

Poe smiled against her as he moved to kiss her ear. "You will be, eventually, when we figure out a plan to get you back."

Lyra felt as his lips ghosted her flesh softly, the pressure was so light it barely felt as if he were really there, but it felt more than just a dream, at least to her.

"I miss you Poe, I miss you so much, stars I love you, I've been so lonely without you" she whispered to him as he kissed her neck gently.

"Liar."

Lyra looked up, away from Poe at the source of the new voice and saw, there, sat on the sofa, was her own image, staring back at her with her arms folded and her eyes cold and full of judgment.

"What are you talking about? Who, who are you?"

The clone scoffed. "I'm you, silly. You are a liar. You claim this man is the love of your life and yet, you lie about your feelings for him."

Poe, seemingly unaffected by her clone's comment, continued to kiss her arm as she sat up, staring at her clone. The air around her felt close and the usual chill that surrounded her whilst she was onboard the Finalizer seemed to be completely absent.

"What do you mean? I don't lie about my feelings for Poe, I love him more than I've ever loved anyone in my life."

The clone sat forward, hands resting under her chin as she inspected the real Lyra.

"But you love another. You try to hide it but you know it's there, your love for Armitage, you feel it coming back to you now, slowly but surely."

Lyra frowned as she shook her head. "My time with Armitage is done. I, I love Poe, I want to be with him."

Lyra tried to ignore the clone, settling down to lie back on her bed as she kissed Poe. She would enjoy this dream before she woke up. She was determined to.

It wasn't long into kissing Poe, that she felt another hand, one significantly cooler to the touch, slide along the side of her body. Then she felt lips against the back of her neck, running along the nape of it slowly.

"Come on my darling. There's no point denying it. I'm your husband after all, your love for me is undying."

Lyra twisted her neck around to see Armitage, just as naked as Poe, other than the bedsheet covering his lower half, smiling down at her.

"What the hell is happening right now?"

Armitage smirked. "We are but a projection of your subconscious my darling and clearly, both of us have been on your mind."

He leaned down to kiss the corner of her mouth. Lyra resisted the kiss but she could feel herself grow weaker under his embrace. In truth, she had been putting up a fight not to give into Armitage's kindness. She had never stopped loving him, that much was true and before she had met Poe, Armitage's love had been the kind she had always thought the strongest and most enticing. His patience and good will towards her had been hard to brush off and watching him practically lay his life on the line for her every day was enough to make anybody feel something towards him.

As she closed her eyes and felt Armitage's hands roam along her body, she felt Poe pull her body close against his, placing one of her legs over his as he ran his hand over it, his lips trailing along her collarbone.

"Come on Lyra, enjoy this, it's a dream, just as you said, and in dreams you can do whatever you want" Poe whispered to her.

"Yes my darling, it's alright, just relax" Armitage whispered in her other ear.

Lyra lent back against Armitage as his full lips found hers, trapping them in a kiss. This time she didn't resist. Her arm reached back to run her hand through his messy morning hair as his tongue found hers. She had imagined Armitage's kisses to be hungry and desperate after spending so much time away from her but in her dream he seemed to be careful and slow, as if savouring every touch of her lips against his. As Armitage deepened the kiss, she felt Poe tighten his grip on her leg.

"Hey, I want her too" he whispered and as Lyra turned back to him, he locked her in another kiss as Armitage's lips went to her shoulder, biting the soft flesh enough to make her moan.

Poe's lips left hers as he ran his tongue down along her neck and chest until he came to her breasts. As he pulled a nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue over it lazily, Armitage captured her in another kiss, making her moan into his mouth as his hands roamed around her hipline teasingly.

"Look at you, proving my point. You can't choose, you have both of them in your grasp and you can't decide. You want them both."

Lyra tried to ignore her clone as she continued to enjoy the attention from both Poe and Armitage. Her husband's tongue traced over the shell of her ear, making her shiver. The shiver of her flesh against Poe made him giggle softly as his own hand trailed down her stomach further down towards her hips.

"You know you won't like the outcome if you don't choose one and stay loyal" the clone's voice echoed out.

"Shut up" Lyra whispered as Armitage's hands found her breasts as he continued to kiss her neck, nipping at the flesh as Poe's own hand trailed down to the valley between her thighs.

"Choose. You have to choose."

Lyra moaned as Poe's fingertips found her hidden bud and Armitage's own tongue skimmed over her breasts as Lyra twisted her body towards him.

"This is a dream. It's just a dream, let me enjoy it for stars sake" she told her clone quietly.

"If you don't choose one, you will lose both to greed and negligence. Choose what life you want."

Lyra frowned. "What if I can't choose? What if I love them both?"

The clone gave a dark, sinister laugh. "You might love them both but you can only confess to one. You can only choose one. If you don't. You will lose everything and leave this world as you entered it. Alone."

Lyra suddenly sat up. "I know, I know that. Don't you think I know that. I love Poe. I will stay loyal to him. Leave me alone, get out of my head, between this and Ren, my mind is not my own. I want everything to be simple again."

Poe and Armitage sat up with her, resuming their ministrations against her soft flesh.

"So decide. Things will get simpler once more when you choose."

As Lyra went to answer, she jolted awake at the sound of Armitage calling her name and shaking her awake gently.

"Lyra, Lyra are you alright?"

Lyra focused on him before nodding. "Yes, yes I'm alright, thank you."

Armitage gave her a worried look. "Sorry for waking you it's just, you were moaning and I was a little worried you might be in pain."

She didn't know whether to be pleased or angry he had woken her. Dreaming of them both had been more than pleasant but her own image feeding her bitter truths had been less so.

Lyra rubbed the sleep from her eyes and nodded. "Thank you."

"More bad dreams? I'm fairly sure I can arrange for Ren to be killed if he insists on hurting you like this."

Lyra smiled. "How very Armitage-like of you. I appreciate it but you know Snoke would kill us both if we conspired to kill his favourite little minion."

He nodded in agreement, looking slightly downtrodden over the fact that she hadn't given him the command to end Ren.

"So, given your position as Captain, am I to assume you had some combat training with the Resistance?"

Lyra nodded, sitting up in bed. "Yes, well, I used to wake up early in the morning and train with a friend."

Armitage gave her a curt nod before standing up straight at the side of the bed. "Well, we can't have you receiving any mediocre training now can we? Perhaps I could test your skills, help you master the basics and smooth out any basic training the Resistance might have provided."

Lyra raised an eyebrow as she stared up at him in confusion. "Are you, are you offering to train me up?"

His posture was rigid as he stood to attention as if he were addressing one of his officers but at Lyra's question she saw the makings of a smile on his face as he winked at her, nodding once.

Still in disbelief that he would offer such a thing she continued to stare.

"Well, are you coming or not?"

She practically fell out of bed in a mad scramble to get ready. Knowing of Armitage's own military past, she knew how tight superior officers were with timekeeping and he was by far, no exception to that rule.

Once dressed they made their way to the training hall. For once, the young General wore a different variation of his uniform. He wore a black tank top with pants that were not quite as stiff as the ones he usually wore. His gloves remained, as if going without them through the halls of the Finalizer would be like working on the bridge without a shirt on. It was a sort of intimacy he wouldn't share with others, except for Lyra of course.

As they walked into an empty training room, Lyra turned to him.

"Why would you do this? Offer to help me train and build my skills up?"

He shrugged. "I know you get bored sitting in our chambers all day. I thought it might be a little more interesting to do something else for once."

She smiled. "It is but, it's not like you do enable me like this. You never offered to train me before."

Armitage closed the door behind them. "I had no idea you wanted to be trained in military combat. You never asked me."

Lyra bowed her head down. Armitage could not take all the blame for her state of living before she had found the Resistance. Lyra had failed to speak out on a number of occasions. She had always been so opinionated about everyone around her, yet she had failed to express opinions about her own happiness around her husband.

"Sorry, yes, that's fair. You can't read minds after all."

"If I had only known that you expressed an interest in anything I had done, you know I would have taught you a few tricks, if I had known it would have made you happy."

She nodded, her eyes still staring down at the floor. The young man leant forward, lifting her chin softly under his gloved hand to smile at her.

"But it doesn't matter, you're here now and I can teach you anything you want to know."

Lyra smiled at him, thankful as always for his seemingly endless amount of kindness towards her.

"So, let's see what you know so far. If I try to grab you like this, what would you d….."

Before he could finish pulling her to him she grabbed his wrist, ducking under it before twisting his arm back enough to make him hold still from fear of pain.

He grit his teeth. "Well done, it seems you are off to an impressive start."

"See, you shouldn't underestimate me" she smiled as she let him go.

"Won't ever be making that mistake again" he finished before trying another move on her that resulted in him holding her back against him, his arm crossed over her collarbone.

Lyra smirked back at him, feeling his warm breath on her face quicken at her closeness. "If I really wanted to counter this move, I highly doubt your manhood would thank me for it."

He raised an eyebrow. "But you could go through the motions at least, just to prove you know how."

She once again ducked under his arm, kicking back against his groin as she did so. She kicked a little too hard, making him groan out in pain as he cupped himself.

"Sorry!"

He waved a hand in dismissal, his face still scrunched up from the injury.

"It's alright. I was asking for that I suppose."

Lyra was thankful that he wasn't willing to take it easy on her. He seemed to train her as he would do any other female officer. Finally, she felt as if he was taking her seriously, as an equal, as someone who could make a difference in this war, regardless of what side she might have been on.

They sparred like that for a good half an hour, before Lyra knocked Armitage off his feet with a swift kick after he tried to stage an uppercut on her and turned away as she smirked. He took her lack of focus as an opportunity to knock her off her own feet and straddled her gently.

"Don't get cocky, and don't turn your back on an enemy" he said, leaning down closer to her face. For a moment they stayed still, staring into each other's eyes as they relished being so close to one another, Lyra's breath ruffling his stray ginger hairs ever so slightly. As he stared down at her lips before leaning in closer, Lyra took the opportunity to use her leg to push him aside before rolling over and straddling him. Her knees close to his neck.

"Don't lose focus" she told him with a smirk, proud that she had the last word. Armitage's hands came to rest on her thighs as he looked up at her with pride. His wife was beautiful, intelligent, resourceful and strong. Stronger than he ever thought.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I yield, truly you are far more skilled than I had planned for."

Lyra smiled down at him. It filled her with a deep sense of pride, to know her own husband, the man she had believed to be the most supportive person in her life, praised her for her efforts in life. Armitage's hand skimmed her leg gently and after noticing her close proximity to him, she quickly stood up and held a hand down for him to take.

After a deep sigh at the loss of close contact, Armitage took her hand and stood up as well, his hand lingering in hers a while longer.

Lyra's eyes scanned the weapons wall when she noticed a bow-like weapon. It had a sleek, thin design, barely noticeable compared to the impressively large blasters and cannons fixed upon the display, but her eyes went to it nevertheless.

"What's this?"

She walked up, her hand reaching out to touch the bow like weapon when Armitage stopped her.

"Careful. She doesn't look like anything much but she's lethal, she packs a punch."

Lyra grinned and the General noted the twinkle in her eye. "Just like me then."

Armitage paused, but after seeing the excitement in his wife's eyes, he very carefully took the bow down from the display.

He stood behind Lyra and secured the bow in her hands. Helping her aim at one of the training dummies she frowned at him.

"It's not loaded."

He smirked. "You see, that's the beauty of this weapon, she has hidden talents, just like you. Pull the string back, you'll see."

She hesitated before following his order, immediately an arrow formed within the bow.
She gasped before looking back at him for an explanation.

"Laser fibres, they form when the weapon is set to fire, an infinite source of ammo, and that's not all. She has different types of ammo. Explosive arrows, remote controlled ones, not to mention grappling arrows."

Lyra raised an eyebrow. "Explosive arrows?"

He smiled at her. "Thought those might peak your interest. Here, change the settings here and set blast radius. Obviously keep it small, we are on our home ship after all, and then when you're ready, fire away."

He stood back and allowed Lyra to aim the weapon herself. She steadied herself before firing the arrow and watched as it hit the dummy and exploded, causing parts of the dummy to go flying across the room.

Lyra let out an impressed cry at the power of the weapon before smiling back at Armitage.
Her husband met her smile and nodded once. "You're a natural."

He approached her and clicked a part of the bow which caused it to close up into a small hand sized pole.

"Great for travel too" the General remarked.

She grinned, looking down at the bow as Armitage brushed her hair back behind her ear.

"If you are so taken with it, you should have it. Nobody ever chooses her in this training room, they always go for the big guns."

Lyra looked up at him. "You would let me keep it?"

"She's just going to waste here in the training room."

Lyra gave him a look of disbelief.

"You think it's wise to arm me?"

He frowned. "You don't have to take it, I just thought you might be grateful for such a weapon."

She nodded. "No, of course I'll take it. Thank you, thank you Tij."

His frown disappeared at her words, and instead he peered down at her affectionately.

"What? What is it?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, it's just, that's the first time you have called me Tij since you returned. I missed you calling me that. So much."

She blushed. "You missed my nickname for you?"

He nodded. "You are the only one who had a nickname for me. You know I love that you call me that."

"That's not true, Poe gave you a nickname, General Hugs."

He frowned. "Oh haha, very funny. Hilarious."

"Sorry. Couldn't resist."

Suddenly, the ship jumped to lightspeed, causing Lyra to fall against Hux. He steadied them both and checked Lyra to see if she was hurt.

"What's going on? Where are we going?"

Armitage looked down at the ground, as if suddenly embarrassed.

"You aren't going to like this but, my men and I, we found a way to track aircrafts through lightspeed."

"But that's impossible."

"It was impossible. I keep telling you I'm rather bright, for my age at least."

Lyra contemplated his words before her eyes widened.

"So we just used lightspeed to follow an aircraft? Which, which aircraft?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Now, keep calm Lyra, I need you to stay calm for me."

She brushed his hand away. "The Resistance, you plan to attack them. You will kill Poe, and Leia. Stars Armitage when will this end?"

"When this war is over darling. That's when it ends. That's when we can be safe, free again."
She frowned, pushing him away as she left the training room, Hux close at her heels.

"That's why you offered to train me. It's why you offered me this bow, you were trying to butter me up."

He tried to hold her back but she wriggled from his grip every time.

"I wasn't trying to butter you up, I love you, I was trying to do a nice thing for you."

"And now, now you counter balance that by killing the ones I love?"

"I want to end this war so that we might have peace in the galaxy once more."

She followed him back at out to the bridge, much to his dismay and watched as the First Order primed an attack on the Resistance cruiser.

As Hux confirmed the attack, Lyra held onto his arm.

"Please Tij, you are the only one who can stop this now. That's my family aboard that ship, please don't do this."

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "If I don't do this, Snoke will kill you, I won't allow that to happen. Besides, Ren is out there leading the attack and you and I both know that rabid dog won't listen to my orders."

Lyra shoved him away and went to the window, watching helplessly as Ren led an attack on the Resistance. She watched as the cruiser took heavy fire, helpless against the First Order now they could find them wherever they went, and with such limited supplies.

Armitage knew better than to go to his wife now, his heart fell at the realisation that he most likely had just lost all trust Lyra had in him. He felt as if he was right back at square one. Again. His relationship with Lyra was starting to feel like it was going round in a small circle, over and over again.

Lyra watched as Ren's ship took aim at the main deck of the cruiser and felt that familiar sense of helplessness as they took fire, breaking the glass and sending a large handful of rebels flying into deep space. She scanned the skies for Poe, feeling sick at the thought of him drifting off to his death and that's when she saw the next worst thing.

Leia. The older General Lyra had come to love as a mother figure over the past few months drifted, almost peacefully into space. Lyra cried out at the sight and banged on the glass.

"That's Leia! That's General Leia, help her, you have to help her, offer her mercy, please!"

Armitage stepped forward, ready to help his wife up off the floor when he and Lyra noticed something extraordinary. There in the distance, Leia's outstretched hand aimed towards the half-ruined Resistance cruiser and the First Order General and his wife watched on in disbelief as Leia's body moved slowly back into the cruiser.

"Lyra come on, I have to get you out of here before Ren returns" Armitage whispered to her. She ignored him, watching on to see if Leia was safe, or if it had just been a strange coincidence.

"Lyra please, if Snoke or Ren see you like this they will punish you, please, come with me, away from here."

She reluctantly agreed, getting up off the floor and taking a long last stare in Leia's direction as Armitage led her back to their chambers. As the doors closed, Lyra wasted no time in pleading to her husband.

"Armitage, I need to know if she's alive, please, let me call through to the Resistance, let me call Poe. I need to know if he and Leia are safe, please."

He sighed. "You know I can't allow that my darling. We can't keep doing this. It's not helping us move forward."

"This isn't about me picking sides or moving on and playing happy families with you Armitage, I need to know if my family is safe."

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"I mean I've had enough of this. I've had enough of these steps backwards, I've had enough of you risking your own safety aboard this ship, not to mention mine as well. This won't be over until this war is over and if you go to him, you are endangering your own life. The rebels are on their last legs and I will not have you gallivanting off with them and risking your safety. You mean too much to me to keep doing this, for me to allow you to keep doing this. Your rebels will die. Today, tomorrow, a week from now, but they will die. I will not have you in their line of fire when that day comes, I know you hate me for it but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in order to make sure you stay alive."

Lyra blinked up at him. "So you expect me to forget about them and not resent you for not even letting me find out if they are alive or not? You just expect me to forget all of them and fall madly in love with you as I once did before?"

Armitage frowned. "Do you know something? No, I don't. I don't expect that. I want that, stars I've never wanted anything more but I am no fool. I expect you to resent me until your dying days, no matter what I do to try and cheer you up. I expect you will always hate me, even if it's just a little bit, even if you learn to tolerate me once more. But I've decided, that hate is worth your life and more. You can resent me and hate me all you want Lyra, but your life is all I care about, so do with that information what you will. Now I need to report back to the Supreme Leader. Stay here and try not to break everything in your anger."

Lyra watched on in disbelief as he left her alone once more. She realised his temper had always stayed fairly levelled with her. Yes he grew frustrated with her at times, and more often than not, heartbroken at her love for Poe, but he never seemed angry. Despite her seemingly doing everything to inspire nothing but rage within him.