You're Always Hiding From the Light
Summary: Poe has been captured. A kyber crystal has been stolen. Rey, Finn, Ben to the rescue! AU. Light Rey/Finn and Ben/Poe. Set in the same universe as my fic, Far Away From Nowhere, but this story takes place a few years later, and you don't need to read the previous fic to understand this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Star Wars...Sigh.
Warning: Torture.
Chapter 1: So Those Are My Schemes
Grakkus the Hutt could throw a party.
For one night a year, the Hutt's palace on Nar Shaddaa was transformed into a glittering, extravagant free-for-all: gambling on the lower floors, dancing on the upper floors, feasting in the middle. And when it came to any of those activities, Grakkus spared no expense. The games offered to players at the Hutt's behest made Canto Bight's attractions akin to lower levels of Gundark Trainer.
The only unoccupied spaces of the Hutt's mansion on this evening were his personal chambers on the top floor, including a hallway of vaults for safeguarding Grakkus' accumulated wealth, preserving Jedi antiquities, and detaining an occasional living specimen.
The people who attended Grakkus' New Moon party were as diverse as the entertainment. Former First Order lackeys hob-nobbed with spice runners. Smugglers bought drinks for bounty hunters. There were Jawas, Twi-leks, Zeltrons, and Trandoshans. However, despite the unique mix of occupations and species, there were few brawls. Everyone had too good of a time not remembering the time they just had.
It was the perfect night for an extraction.
Ben Solo hit Grakkus' roof with a thud. Before he had time to look up at the craft responsible for his landing, it was gone, just another smear of lights obscured by the moon's thick atmospheric smog. Although he couldn't see it, Rey and the Falcon were close by, drifting in the pollution until called upon.
Solo tugged at the scratchy high collar on his formal evening jacket. Covering the jacket, a large greatcoat hung off his frame. The coat was stiff and uncomfortable but contained more pockets than he could count, each one stuffed to maximum capacity.
What are you doing here?
The voice belonged to a ghost, one that barely surfaced anymore in his memory, like the twinge in the front of your skull before a migraine begins. Ben sipped a breath and shrugged Kylo Ren away.
Paying Finn and Rey and Poe back for everything they did for me. It's the least I can do before I leave them again.
Then Solo got to work.
Mechanics always soothed him, even as a youngling. R2-D2 had come up with an ingenious solution to the problem of security. Ben's fingers pried off the nearest control panel on the roof. And, like a well-trained pick-pocket, he swiped a miniature screwdriver out of one of the openings in his coat and began dismantling the system. Next, a pair of scissors. He cut a green wire with one hand and locked a small yellow disc into the control panel with his other. Orange lights flashed briefly, and Ben winced, expecting a siren to stymie their plan. But the lights vanished, and the system restored itself into a calming turquoise glow.
Solo allowed himself a small sigh of relief. If all had gone well, he had just bought himself six minutes to get in and out—no alarms, no locking mechanisms, no cameras. He hoped it was enough time.
Next, Ben found an air vent and checked for guards before opening it and jumping inside. He kept track of the countdown in his head.
Five minutes, 30 seconds.
He removed his dress shoes and slid them into two large coat pockets. Sensing no other beings in the immediate vicinity, Ben ran down the dark hallway sandwiched between various bedrooms and studies until he came to a large chamber- Grakkus' main audience hall.
Five minutes.
Solo flipped through the diagram of the top floor in his mind and continued straight ahead, taking a left at the next corridor and dashing into darkness: vaults on his left, a gallery on his right, and then…
He slid on socked feet past the prisoner's door and lurched to a halt. He pressed on the door before spying the old fashioned padlock. Grakkus wasn't taking any chances with this prisoner. Breathing hard, the lightsaber jumped in his hands, a white beam slicing through the air, inches from his face.
Memories flooded back to him he had no time to suppress. Four minutes, he thought absently. Hands shaking, Solo cut the lock on the door, and it swung inside on its hinges.
The room was empty, except for a wide metal chair and a bucket in the corner. Poe Dameron sat in the chair, slumped over, lips parted, eyes closed. Restraints of some kind wrapped over his arms and ankles. In an instant, Ben observed the cut along the corner of Poe's mouth, the bruises on his face, the soiled bandages wrapped around his hands.
Solo stepped forward to wake him, but a sudden crackle of electricity emanated from the chair. Before Ben could act, the energy wrapped around the shackles and shocked him.
Dameron yelped, and his eyes shot open wide. Then they blinked in confusion, locking onto Ben's, and he melted into his metallic chair again, his lips hinting at a smile.
"Took you...long enough."
Three minutes.
The saber vanished into another coat pocket, and with a flick of Ben's wrist, Poe's restraints crumpled and peeled away, falling harmlessly to the floor.
"Thanks…" Poe began, but his eyes were already sliding closed.
Solo lunged forward and caught the pilot before he fell out of the chair. Poe's face pressed against his shoulder before his eyes opened again, more slowly this time, and Ben wondered if Dameron had been drugged.
"No time," Ben whispered. "I'm getting you out of here."
Solo stood, taking Poe with him, and he propped the pilot against himself. However, Dameron sagged so heavily that Ben was considering the option of carrying him, when Poe mumbled, "They got… the crystal…"
Two minutes...
"Where is it?" Ben growled.
"Main...floor..."
Solo felt himself stall. A part of him wanted to bundle Poe into his arms and get to the roof and fly away. To hells with the crystal. But it was important to Rey, and therefore it was important to Finn, and therefore-
"'m not...leaving without it," Dameron said, stubborn as always.
Ben huffed. "Would my argument that you can barely stand persuade you to give up on that idea?"
Poe's eyes were already sliding closed again. "Please…?"
One minute...
Solo swept Dameron off his feet and ran with him down the hallway, past the audience chamber, and straight to the giant doors that would lead them to the elevator, as well as the inevitable…
"Goon One and Goon Two," Solo muttered in greeting.
They were big and brawny and sharp-toothed, but Solo had seen worse. Better to have more brains than muscles when facing a Force-user, but these guys didn't know that.
Solo almost barked a laugh at the sight of their clueless expressions as he barreled toward them, directly out of Grakkus' private chambers, prisoner in tow.
Goon One at least had the foresight to raise his axe in greeting, but a wave of Kylo's hand (and a hefty dose of the Force) was no match for either of them.
Solo rattled off hypnotic commands as quickly as possible: "You're all right. Everything's all right. You didn't see anything. Nothing weird. Prisoner is still in his cell. Great? Great. Gotta go."
The two goons' eyes glazed over as Ben hurtled past them and into the giant gold-plated elevators that would take them out of danger, for now.
"Not my best work," Solo grumbled to himself because Poe's eyes were closed again, the pilot's head lolling against his shoulder. "Still, it did the trick."
Thirty seconds...
Once in the elevator, Ben set Poe gently on the floor and punched the button for level ten. The descent would buy them more time, assuming the elevator didn't stop on any other floors. Solo prayed it wouldn't as he fumbled for the comm in his pocket.
"Finn. Poe doesn't have the crystal. It's somewhere on the first floor. We're headed to meet you."
"Acknowledged." A burst of static, then Finn's voice returned, sober and worried: "How is he?"
"He's alive," Ben said, his throat suddenly dry. "But he's injured. We'll make our way to you as soon as we can."
"Roger."
"And Finn-"
"Yes?"
"Tell Rey to get out of here the moment she sees Grakkus' guards on the roof. The timer is about to go off, and someone's going to realize eventually that Poe's not there. Tell her to make the getaway look hasty, so they'll think Poe is well and truly gone."
"Roger that. How many minutes do we have?"
The seconds ticked off in his head: Three, two…
"None."
The elevator opened with a ding, and the sirens began to blare.
TBC
A/N: Soooo many thoughts.
I enjoyed TROS, but I wanted...more. I wanted more Finn, more Poe, and much more Ben. I've had this story in my mind since writing Far Away From Nowhere, and even though this plot line takes place much farther in the future from where I am right now in "Far Away…," I wanted to explore it. Hope you enjoy! As always, let me know what you think!
~Ista. ^_^
*Note: The title and chapter titles of this fic are taken from one of my favorite Tears For Fears songs, "Break It Down Again."