AN: And we have officially entered into The Force Awakens territory! I hope you all have been enjoying this story so far. I can't wait to hear what you all think!

Kat stood at her command center, pretending to go through the motions of prepping for a new mission. Everything of course had already been done but she was passing time until Poe's team finished with their send-off. She had checked in with BB-8 and it seemed like CB-23 had gotten the orange and white astromech to lighten up on her some. The droid cheerfully beeped at her when telling her that everything was fine and ready to go whenever Poe finished talking.

She even told the droid that it was nice to have them back. After all, the fact that BB-8 sassed about how long Poe took to say goodbye and let her tease Poe along with them was a big win. She of course would miss her CB unit but the red and blue astromech promised to keep Kaz in line for her. Kat had no doubt about that, laughing at the fact as she said goodbye to CB-23 the day before when Poe went to switch out droids.

Just as she was about to put on her headset, Poe walked over to her. He leaned against the command center, arms loosely crossed over his chest as he began to list all of the mission details to her. The run-through was typical. Kat made all of her commanders do it before leaving on a mission so that she knew they understood the details. This time though he didn't sound like an exasperated child doing something that he didn't want to do. "No comms this trip. Should be back within 24 hours. If not, the rendezvous point is just outside Niima Outpost and a transport will show up in 48 hours after I haven't returned. That all sound correct?"

She turned to look at him, a smirk fully displayed. She really couldn't help but tease him. She normally would send him off with a warning of not doing anything stupid to just hurry up and get him away from her. This time though things had shifted between them and she wanted to give him a proper send-off. "Look at that he does listen."

Poe rolled his eyes as he fought the urge to smile. "Anything else, colonel?"

Kat pulled a commlink out from a drawer and handed it over to him. "For emergencies only. I'm impatient."

He gave her a knowing smile and pocketed the commlink before pulling her in for a hug. If she didn't want to come right out and say it, he could play that game. Instead of letting her know that he would be fine with his words, he let his hug speak for him.

Kat stiffened, especially after she heard the rest of Black Squadron gasp. The team of course hadn't gone too far, wanting to see the interaction between their two leaders. She knew the minute she let herself hug him back the whispers would start up again. She just didn't know what they would say this time.

"May the Force be with you." She said as she pulled back, pushing him slightly away to silently tell him to get going. He had this look in his eye and she was not about to get caught up in it.

There may have been no communication but they were keeping track of the X-Wing Poe took. A warning signal started sounding as it showed the damage that the starfighter had taken. Kat watched, hoping that BB-8 would be able to fix the damage. The actual minutes that passed felt like hours. The red light blinking up at her told her that the fighter was no more. She didn't want to believe it, couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it.

Kat pushed away from the command center and pulled out her commlink. Her breathing started to quicken as she thought of all of the different scenarios that could be happening on the other end on a planet miles away from where she currently stood. She briefly wondered if this was what Wes and the others on her team felt like when she had been captured during the riots.

"Navy Leader to Black Leader, do you copy?" Silence greeted her in return. She tried to take a few deep breaths as she began to pace back and forth. Trying not to think about how Poe had taken her in his arms a few days before to dance with her so that she would stop pacing. "Navy Leader to Black Leader, do you copy?" She tried again, doing her best to keep her voice steady.

On her next pass, she noticed Leia standing there. The look the older woman gave wasn't of a general looking to a colonel who had snuck a communication device into a no communication mission. No, this was a mother coming to support her daughter. Kat felt the tears stinging at her eyes but pushed them down. The crew was not about to see her cry. Instead, she pushed her fear into anger and stepped forward so that she now towered over the woman who raised her. "This is why I didn't want to let him in." She hissed before turning to go to her command team.

"I need a med team ready in 48 hours along with a small extraction crew. Prepare for the worst. I also want eyes and ears on the lookout for any sign from not only Commander Dameron but his BeeBee unit as well." She ordered, a chorus of agreements was heard before she stormed out of the hangar.

Leia followed, stepping into Kat's room before the younger woman could close the door. As soon as Leia closed the door, Kat sunk down on her bed with a heavy sigh and continued to fight back her tears. Leia sat beside her, pulling the woman into her arms.

The moment Kat felt Leia's arms around her the tears finally fell much to her disappointment. She didn't want to believe that Poe was gone. She couldn't. She may not be force sensitive but she did have intuition and she also knew her brother. He wouldn't give up a chance to get information. She had to go out to Jakku and find out herself. She had to go and rescue him.

"You're going to go personally, aren't you?" Leia asked after she let Kat cry for a few moments.

Kat nodded. "I have to know for sure." She had to pay her own rescue mission forward. She didn't die either time she came close to death for a reason.

"Then who am I to stop you."

Kat pulled away, wiping at the tears that were stubborn enough to fall even with all her effort. "I would have gone if you said I could or not."

Leia chuckled and patted her leg. "You know, you were still right to let him in."

"Was I?" She scoffed. "I feel like I personally gave him the kiss of death. You are the exception to the heartbreak that seems to follow me everywhere I go, not the rule."

"I don't believe that you think he's truly gone. Or why else would you get a team together and not jump in an A-Wing yourself to check?"

Kat sighed before explaining how she felt, what her intuition was telling her. "Something tells me that if he truly thought he was in danger, he would have made contact. We haven't heard a word which means he was either taken completely by surprise or he has some plan in mind."

Before Leia could respond, the comm crackled to life. "Looks like you won the race, Katerina." The voice of Kylo Ren came through. He had his suspicions when the stormtroopers had found the commlink in the pilot's jacket pocket. The pilot had done his best to hide the brief moment of fear that crossed over his features when the commlink had been taken away. So he knew it had to link back to the Resistance somehow. Knowing the woman, a part of him still called sister, he knew that it had to be Kat's doing.

Kat froze, looking at the commlink still gripped in her hand. Did she answer back? Did she just let him talk? She looked to Leia who just shook her head. Letting him talk seemed to be the decision.

"Your pilot has managed to not tell anyone what he's done with the map but I'll know soon enough. Or you could just tell me and I'll let you say goodbye." Kylo continued.

That just confirmed it. Her brother had Poe captive. Kat gripped her sheets as memories of her own time as a POW came to mind. While she studied on Naboo, there was plenty of unrest as those who believed in the First Order wanted to take it over, to make it one of the many planets that were falling to the First Order's rule because it was the home planet to the Emperor. While Kat had originally gone to not join the fight just yet, the riots and attacks happening right in front of her, she couldn't ignore. She joined in the counter-effort and while she used what she had learned so far, she was still far from the commanding officer she was currently.

She went to go help rescue a classmate but acted without thinking through a plan resulting in both her and the classmate getting captured. She was behind enemy lines for two weeks where she was tortured. They planned to break her and any others they got to bring them back up again as a follower of the First Order. The man who would become her best friend there and a few others had rescued her.

Kat shook her head and focused back on the present. Her brother had Poe and she still needed to know what became of BB-8. She began calculating how much time it would take her to get to Jakku and to the Star Destroyer she was sure they would be on.

Kylo let out a frustrated sigh when there was still no response. "I know you're there, Katerina. You must not be alone or you would have said something by now."

Kat couldn't keep still anymore even if Leia tried to put a comforting hand on her bouncing leg. She stood, ready to get a team ready much sooner than 48 hours, ready to storm out of her room and jump into a fight. Leia let out a sigh, knowing it was now a lost cause to keep Kat quiet. She motioned for Kat to say whatever it was that was on the tip of the young woman's tongue.

"I'm sorry you must have gotten your numbers mixed up, sugar. But from the sounds of it you and that pilot must be hungry so don't you worry, a delivery is on its way." She said in her best impression of Ruby before turning off the commlink and running back out to the hangar.

"I need that medic and extraction team ready now!"

Kylo Ren growled when the comm clicked off, throwing it to the side. To anyone else's untrained ear, they would have thought, it really was someone else entirely. But he knew those words were meant more for the pilot than for him. It let the pilot know that help was on the way. He was caught between getting the location of the map out of this pilot who seemed to be laughing or going to prepare for whatever attack Kat could possibly plan. He could always deal with the colonel himself but he needed to know the location of Luke Skywalker, immediately.

"You've done it now, pal." Poe continued to chuckle. "She's not really one you should anger." What Kat had said had given him hope. She was on her way to bring him home. He twisted his wrist, feeling her hair tie around his wrist. He had forgotten to give it back to her after their mission together and when he realized it he was already halfway to Jakku. The small added weight had kept him grounded as the Stormtroopers tortured him. Now the added pressure just added to the relief at the knowledge that she was on her way.

He just needed to pick up BB-8 from the rendezvous point and they could continue on their search. Not to mention he would love to see Kylo Ren face the wrath that he knew Kat could bring to the coward who hid behind the mask.

Kylo Ren scoffed and took a menacing step towards Poe who was shackled to a table. Clearly, the pilot hadn't put two and two together. Unless Kat had kept her relations to Leia secret but he highly doubted that. He knew how important family was to her. It was one of her reasons for not joining him. "She's no match for the First Order. Now, where is the map?" He returned to the interrogation at hand, not wanting to think anymore about the younger of the two women who could make him falter in his path to becoming as great as his grandfather.

Soon Poe's agonizing screams could be heard before all went quiet and Kylo Ren stormed from the room, planning to order General Hux to find that droid.

The second that the transport landed, Kat ran down the ramp and out into the desert heat. She looked frantically for Poe but there was no sign of him. That's when she noticed the state the outpost was in. "Go ahead and prepare the bed. I'm going to go see what happened." She called out behind her before making her way to Niima Outpost.

"Excu-" she was cut off before she even began by the vendor shutting the window in her face. She was just about to bang on the metal when another vendor came up to her. "Don't mind him. He just lost a droid and one of his employees. He's not the best person to ask for favors anyway. Come, come we must get you out of this heat."

Kat was led to a tent that held plenty of scarves. The Resistance colonel knew that the vendor wasn't doing this out of the goodness of their heart but because they could make a profit off of giving her information. "Sorry for the mess, it's usually more presentable." The vendor said.

"What happened here?" Kat asked.

"The First Order. Probably after that droid. Don't see many like it around here."

"What did the droid look like?" Could it have been BB-8? She didn't see the astromech anywhere but surely if the vendor knew where the droid possibly could have gone, Kat could rescue it.

The vendor pulled down a gray scarf and held it out to her. Kat let out a sigh and took it, handing over what little money she had on her, not wanting to play the pay for each question game. The vendor smiled and motioned for Kat to put the scarf on. "It was orange and white. A girl kept watching over it."

That made Kat worried but then again BB-8 wouldn't stick around someone they didn't trust. She knew that from experience. "Did you see anything else?" Kat asked, hoping the vendor saw what happened to the droid.

The vendor shook their head. "Just the TIE fighters. One even crashed out near the sinking fields before they attacked the post."

Kat stood, hope bursting in her chest despite the grim news. She would either be greeted with stormtroopers or an escaped Poe. "How do I get there?"

"Head North until you see the sand move underneath you. Just don't stand there for too long."

"Thank you." Kat hurried out of the tent and started making her way back to her ship when she noticed the speeder. She commed in her plan and hopped on the speeder coincidentally left behind by the girl who was looking after BB-8.

By nightfall, Kat reached the edge of the sinking fields. She stopped the speeder and pushed up the goggles left behind, trying to see if she saw anything that could look like a person. That's when she noticed someone trudging up the dune that marked the edge of the field just to the left of her.

His jacket was missing and he looked awful. His curls were sticking up at odd angles. Blood, grease, and just overall grime practically covered every inch of him. "Poe?!" She called out, cautiously optimistic since it was night and he was a bit away from her.

His head snapped in the direction of her voice, giving her a clearer view of his face. "Poe!" She exclaimed as she jumped off the speeder and ran to him. The smile on both their faces made the stars above them look dull.

Poe let out a soft groan as Kat wrapped him in her arms but he didn't care. He just held onto her like his life depended on it. He felt like he had just been through hell. His mind still felt like needles were sticking in it from where Kylo Ren forced his way into his thoughts. Then, even though he had only known Finn for not even an hour, that was one more man on his ledger of deaths he couldn't prevent. Then not to mention the injuries he had sustained before Kylo walked in and even the bruised ego afterward when Kylo made a snarky comment about the woman in his arms. All in all Katerina Metonae was a sight for sore eyes and the fact she looked so thrilled when she saw him eased some of the pain.

"You're not supposed to be here for another 24 hours." He joked instead of expressing just how relieved he was to see her.

"I told you I was impatient." She said as she let out a sigh of relief. Of course, she had been worried when she saw that the X-Wing was no more but as soon as Kylo Ren came over the commlink, she began to worry even more. But here he was in her arms, alive and she was so glad that she wouldn't have to add him to the ledger of people who left her. She pulled back and wrapped his arm around her shoulders so she could help him to the speeder. "I've got a med team waiting for ya. Just hold on a little longer for me."

"You got it, colonel." He slurred just slightly now that he wasn't pushing his body forward. He felt relaxed enough that his injuries were truly starting to take a toll. Even if it seemed like he had been out cold for the remainder of the day.

She miraculously got him onto the speeder. Once they were both settled she pushed the speeder as fast as it could go. They made it back to the transport and as soon as he stepped off, he nearly fell. Both Kat and one of the medics had caught him before he dropped completely.

The medic team whisked Poe away despite him trying to keep Kat close. "I've got to get us back home then I'll be there." She promised, squeezing his hand before heading to the cockpit. She found his constant asking about her whereabouts endearing to the point where she had to school her features back into a more stoic expression instead of the smile she wore.

She told the pilot to go ahead for takeoff before she went to contact the base. "Package is secure. Headed back to base. We need to put out a call for our friends to be on the lookout for BB-8. He was not at the rendezvous site and was last seen with a female." She informed them.

"Copy that Navy Leader. We'll see you back at base." Connix replied.

Kat turned off the commlink and made her way to the section of the transport they had made into a med bay. They had cleaned him of all the blood and grime that had covered his face and matted his hair. He laid on the bed in a bacta suit and after looking through his list of injuries, she was surprised they weren't doing more than that.

"I was beginning to think you forgot about me." He commented, startling her out of her reverie. He had looked to be asleep when she entered.

She chuckled and moved to sit beside him, taking his hand in hers. "I don't think I could even if I tried."

"Is BeeBee here?"

She shook her head. "I requested for our friends to be reached out to so they can be on the lookout."

He just nodded and squeezed her hand.

She let out a sigh and brought his hand up so she could place a kiss to the back of it. "Next time you go on a solo mission, try not to scare me so much, will ya?"

"You were worried about me, colonel?" He gave her a lopsided grin.

Kat just rolled her eyes. "Who else was I gonna annoy? Snap?"

Poe scrunched his nose and shook his head. "Kare likes you too much so he wouldn't be able to properly annoy you back."

"See, so I have to keep you around."

"You can't get rid of me that easily anyway."

She laughed a bit. "So I've noticed. Now get some sleep. You've had a bit of a day."

He chuckled, squeezing her hand. "Will you stay?"

She nodded and stood, placing a kiss on his forehead. "I'll just be right here," she pointed to the bench that was by his bed, "so I won't be too far away. I don't want to accidentally hit something on the suit in my sleep."

Kat started to pull away but Poe pulled her down once more, kissing her cheek. "Thanks for the rescue."

She smiled down at him. "Get some sleep commander."

As if on cue, his head lulled to the side as he finally let himself drift off to sleep. Kat grabbed a blanket and a pillow and curled up on the bench next to his bed. She thought it would take her a while to relax enough to fall asleep but with the knowledge that Poe was alright and next to her, she practically fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.