"Skyfall is where we start...
A thousand miles and poles apart.
Where worlds collide and days are dark.
You may have my number, you can take my name...
But you'll never have my heart."

'Skyfall' - Adele

He would never get away with it.

ZL-U58 comforted herself with that knowledge over the next half hour. She occupied her brain with the mindless evening routine of cleaning her armor, buffing out the scuffs, filling in the gouges with plastoid foam and smoothing the repair out. The busted temp regulators were out of her control, so she plugged in a maintenance request on her wrist unit, threw her skin suit in the garment refresher for a quick spin and dry. Though her weapon had been broken down in inspection, she broke it down again, cleaning it this time until it gleamed. She made up for her missed dinner chow with a supplement bill and a contraband Bantha Milk Chocolate Chewey Gooey Bar.

The routine that she stuck to every night (minus the Chewey Gooey) should have soothed ZL-U58, made her feel the comforting wind-down she enjoyed at the end of night before it was lights out. But nothing eased the burning in her gut from worry, the throb at her left temple from the anxiety headache. Even though FN-2187 had departed the room, she could still feel those emotions of his and the stain they had left on the air.

By the time that her skinsuit was dry and hung up alongside her now gleaming plastoid armor and her weapon was hung back up in its rack, she was still unsettled and her stomach was a little sick from the Chewey Gooey bar. Deciding to take her mood and her bellyache to bed, ZL-U58 headed for the bunk room, her steps dragging with fatigue.

There was nothing she could do for FN-2187. He would never get to the Resistance Pilot, not if Ren was working him over, let alone get himself and Poe Dameron to a ship and escape the Finalizer. He'd go down for this. Execution or tossed into a prison to slowly rot away. The First Order had taken a page from the Empire's book on incarceration. They were absolute hellholes. There was nothing she could do for him.

ZL-U58 repeated that to herself as she unbraided her hair, wincing as her scalp throbbed from how tight she'd had the plait earlier. He had lost his grip on control, had lost sight of everything that he was, everything that he lived and breathed for all the years he could remember of his life. She couldn't, wouldn't go down with him just because she had briefly lost control of her own emotions and felt a moment's pity for that Resistance Pilot.

"You're not their whore…fight them, damn you…have some pride in what you are!...You go down fighting…you're not their tool, Blue!"

ZL-U58's head throbbed sharply and she winced, climbing up to her bunk to sit, legs and bare feet dangling over the side. It had to stop, she couldn't let that man's words get into her head, her brain and fuck things up as such thoughts had fucked up FN-2187's. Hair loosened, she speared both hands up into the thick blue waves and pressed her elbows to her knees, head lowered as she let out a long breath.

The quiet hum of the barracks was shredded by a crisp voice booming over the ship's comm system. "All infantry units are to report to the Main Docking Bay at once. I repeat: all infantry units are to report to the Main Docking Bay at once!"

ZL-U58 shut her eyes tight on a moan, her head giving one sickening throb before the headache exploded into full strength.

What have you done, 87?

Twenty minutes earlier:

"We can't just leave. There's other prisoners on this ship, rebel prisoners."

"There's no time! Do you want out of here or not? Do you want that guy in the mask to have another shot at your head?"

"You need a pilot. I can fly anything. But we don't leave without them—"

"There are no other prisoners on this ship!"

"Look, they sent a woman in to soften me up. A Zeltron. Someone had beat the hell out of her. I'm not just taking off and leaving Blue and the others to—"

"Her name isn't Blue. It's ZL-U58 and she's another Stormtrooper. Can we go?!"

"No, that's not true. You didn't see her face…the way she looked at me…"

"I just saw her. She called me a traitor as I walked away from her. She's not some victim. We need to go!"

"You know her…?"

"Yeah...She used to be my friend."

The TIE/sf space superiority fighter, sleek and black and deadly, screamed as it yanked at its restraint. The main docking bay was a scene of mass chaos and destruction as Stormtroopers took cover behind crates of cargo and supplies, turning them into makeshift barriers. Blaster fire turned the light bright as shots ricocheted off the rogue TIE Fighter, made the air stink as metal smoked and sparked.

ZL-U58, in full armor, her F-11D blaster rifle in her grasp, stared in mute horror as the TIE Fighter again dipped low, throttled down, then went screaming up, the tethering restraint nearly snapping. As one of the massive panels lit up in a shower of sparks, the sleek, rounded ship whirled about and twin laser cannons blasted out towards the barriers behind which Stormtroopers were taking fire. White-clad bodies flew up, screams of pain joining the terrible banshee wail of the struggling TIE. FN-2187 was firing on the very soldiers he'd once trained and served with.

She stood there, limbs stiff, feet frozen in place and stared at the carnage, her blaster rifle silent and cold in her hands. If anyone noticed the Stormtrooper not taking a shot, not firing on their enemy, ZL-U58 wasn't aware of it, nor of the ramifications her lack of action could entail. Behind her helmet, her breathing was ragged, burning her lungs her eyes were wide and blank.

With another screaming wail, the TIE Fighter finally broke the tether. ZL-U58 winced as the restraint snapped and fell to the floor of the ship. The sound of it echoed in her brain.

Orders came through her helmet, sharp and clear: "Eliminate the target! Confirmed escaped prisoner and traitor onboard. Eliminate the target!"

No matter what she had felt over the last few hours, the doubt and questioning of what was her world, ZL-U58 was a soldier. She knew where her loyalties lay.

She sucked in one steadying breath, crouched behind a barrier and took aim and fired on what had once been her friend.

Sorry this one's so short. Originally, it was a lot longer, far too long for one chapter. I'm going to put up the rest as Chapter Seven after I finish it up. That chapter should be up by Saturday, providing coursework and the unfortunate being an adult thing doesn't get in the way.

If you have a tumblr and want updates or to see lots of Star Wars randomness, my name on there is bluemilkinaredsolocup.