Gunny suggested a "first crash for Poe" scene where Ben senses disaster. The beginning started out with beautiful angst… and then I started writing after dark. I will never take Kylo Ren seriously. 0_0
Warning: Ridiculous scenarios ahead (with a dose of tissue warning at the very end).
(Before Kylo Ren) (Ben is ten)
The announcement of Poe's first real mission preceded a ten-year-old Ben barreling into his room.
"You're not leaving!" Ben exclaimed, watching in horror as Poe strapped on his vest.
"I've got a mission," Poe said after he recovered from his surprise. I could swear I locked that door….
"You can't go!" Vulnerability shattered dark eyes and Ben raced to intercept Poe's helmet. "No!" he shouted, jerking it from the pilot's hands. "I heard Mother overview the mission. You'll be killed. I won't let you go!"
"Ben." Alarmed, confounded, and now infinitely concerned for the teenager's state of mind, Poe crouched before him. "Ben, I have to go. I know there's a risk. Any one of those pilots could die – could be me, could be one of my friends. That's what they prepared us for in the academy. Our job is to preserve the republic."
"But you'll die!" Ben shouted. "I know! I've seen things! I saw your ship on fire. There was a man with a red sword standing over you. You can't leave, Poe!"
"Ben, Ben!" Poe gripped the child's shoulders and exhaled slowly, lost for words. "Dreams and visions can be funny," he said at last. "Not even Master Skywalker can predict the future. Maybe someday I'll be captured, but I have friends to back me up. We pilots look after each another." Lightly he added, "Who knows; you may be the one rescuing me someday."
"Don't joke about this," Ben hissed. "You know nothing!" He flung Poe's helmet against the wall, then grabbed the pilot's jacket. "Promise me you'll come back – even if it means failing the mission. Promise me you won't die!"
Heart sinking, Poe shook his head. "I can't do that, Ben. I think you know that, too."
Cold dark eyes brimmed with tears and the 'fresher mirror exploded behind them. Tearing away from Poe, Ben ran.
He was waiting in the hangar two days later, when Poe's squadron returned. One X-wing had been downed. Poe was grieving his own comrade when thin arms latched around his waist.
"I knew you'd come back," Ben sniffled. "My vision changed."
Too dazed to respond, Poe ruffled the ink black waves. Ben's grip tightened.
By the third mission, Ben had stopped trying to predict the outcome. He ignored Poe's departures, and Leia commented that he was abnormally quiet whenever the pilot was absent. Poe couldn't help the feeling that something had changed.
Ben was slowly detaching himself.
Poe was seventeen the first time he crashed. Ben was eleven; innocent and yet teeming with independence. Poe remembered the euphoria of flight, the thrill of a mission, and a yell from his leader before he veered into a tree and his right wing exploded.
Poe vaguely remembered spinning, ejecting out of his cockpit, and spiraling as his parachute hooked around a limb. He saw the spear of a broken branch speeding towards his face and his only thought was'What a stupid way to die'.
In a flash he knew he would lose an eye at best. Half his face and skull, most likely. The branch filled his vision and –
He snapped against a current, bashing the opposing side of the trunk. Kriffing Force! Poe had been on the opposing end enough times to recognize a power play. Tell me there's not a dark Jedi on this planet.Or stars have mercy, one of Luke's apprentices. General Solo would kill him when she heard the Blue Leader's report, never mind an account from one of her brother's trainees. As if I wasn't dead already.
But he wasn't – miraculously – and he was detangled from his parachute hours later by an irate, aged captain who dragged him before General Solo, bruised limbs and swollen shoulder ignored. Leia was already fuming.
"My son told me what happened," she said as soon as the Blue Leader left the room.
Ben peeked out from behind the holovision and waved proudly. Poe cradled his swollen arm.
"The Force interference?" he mumbled.
"Uh-huh." Striding forward, Leia cursorily examined the cut on Poe's eyebrow and lightly pressed his shoulder. She tutted when he hissed. "Medcenter. Now. You're on ground duty for the next three months."
Ben snickered.
"You can thank him that you're here," Leia snapped when Poe glared at her son. "If he hadn't sensed that you were still alive, the search party would have assumed you were dead on impact."
Relief battled with the scold in her eyes, and she nodded once more at the door. "Get yourself patched up."
"I saved you!" Ben called over her shoulder. Numbly Poe waved him off and skittered.
He was grounded for three months. He suspected it should have been five. Sometimes he wondered if he had been adopted after all, and he wasn't sure how Ben knew that before he did.
(Aftermath)
That had been years before Kylo Ren. Poe was smarter now. Faster. Trees feared him. (And Rey respected trees, which meant that Poe couldn't blast the branches that blocked his path anymore.)
He still wasn't invincible.
It was no surprise to Poe when he woke one morning below his open cockpit, sticky sap gluing one eye shut and blood smeared across both hands. His first thought was for BB-8. A trill of frantic whistles told him that the droid was still locked in position, and likely had been for some time.
"Ow," Poe murmured, lifting a hand to the gooey mass on his face. Tree sap. Why was he always plagued with irony? Looks like the little guy wasn't here to rescue me this time.
It must have been a memory; the dream of his first disaster and Kylo – Ben's interference. He knew that it fit. Slowly his mind was restoring itself, piecing together the stories that had been ripped away.
"Stay calm, Dameron."
The voice which crackled above Poe nearly shocked him into unconsciousness. Gasping through the buzzing in his head, Poe searched the forest until he saw his comlink indicator blinking above him.
"I've already alerted the Resistance of your location," the voice continued. "It's only a matter of time before they find you – or the First Order annihilates your ship – so stay where you are."
"Ben?" Poe croaked.
"Kylo. Ren, you fool," Kylo Ren said heatedly. "I renounced my childhood years ago."
"Why're you calling me?" Frowning, Poe glanced at BB-8 and shrugged in confusion. Funny how coherent he felt when he was properly irked. "How'd you get my comlink frequency? Again?"
"You're a friend of my mother's, Poe." Kylo Ren sighed. "Obviously she wanted to keep in contact with me somehow."
"Your mother gave you my frequency?" Poe let his head fall back against the ground. Perfect. I'm babysitting a Sith lord.
"Your brains are worthless," Kylo Ren chided. "Pay attention – and don't fall asleep. I need you alive if the First Order captures you."
"So relieved you care," Poe snarled. Another thought struck him and he bolted upright, gasping as his neck panged. "BB-8!" The fear was shouted before his brain could rationalize it away.
"Relax, Dameron," Kylo Ren droned. "I'm not hunting your droid. I have better things to do. Besides, it's so much more entertaining to follow my sister around and pretend I know where her precious Jedi Temple is."
"What sis – Rey? What – no! No!" Falling back, Poe clapped a hand to his head and groaned. "You're crushing on your own sister?"
Kylo Ren sniggered. "You're absolutely gullible. Don't be daft, Dameron. We're hardly related, but she's so riled by the notion that it'll be easier to propose to her once she learns her true heritage."
"You're disturbing," Poe grated.
"And you're repetitive. I'm sending my scouts in. Mother had better be there soon."
"So you're helping me," Poe realized, his unsealed eye widening at the absurdity.
"I'm giving you a fair chance," Kylo Ren corrected. "If you're captured I'll just have to kill you. This gives me more time to locate Skywalker."
"That's a flimsy excuse," Poe retorted. I'm still being patronized by a Solo.
Kylo Ren coughed painfully and muttered, "If I kill you she'll never speak to me again. Besides, you're the only one who ever... It's complicated."
"I'm talking with Rey when I get back," Poe warned. "If she's side-dealing with a Sith lord –"
"It's not like she's your girlfriend. Back off already!"
"She's Finn's!" Poe exclaimed. "You're on the wrong side, anyways!"
"FN-2187?" Kylo Ren growled. "I knew I should have focused on his assassination. How important is he to Rey?"
"Erm…." Technically Finn was more interested in Rey than the other way around, but Poe didn't need a Jealous Stormtrooper vs. Lord of Tantrums squabble – especially since he'd have to get involved. "Forget it. Tell me how you're going to capture Luke."
"You can't evade me that easily, Dameron. Tell me what FN-2187 is plotting."
The conversation sounded uncannily like the "interrogations" he used to play with Ben when the former Jedi was still running around in brown coveralls. Ben would be the Imperialist "testing" Poe's mettle by asking lengthy "important" questions, while Poe changed the subject as many times as it took Ben to forget the original question.
"I think we're reverting to childhood," Poe mused.
"What are you talking about, Dameron? … Are you conscious still?" There was a slew of profanities that Leia would have slapped Ben's mouth for if she'd heard. "Too late. In a few minutes you will be surrounded by your allies. If you die on their watch I will reprogram your droid to assassinate FN-2187. You have exactly two weeks to recuperate before I capture you for interrogation."
"Is this going to become a pattern?" Poe yelled. He could see it now; the endless chase of 'Beat up Poe while Kylo kisses Rey and Finn bosses all the stormtroopers'. "A prisoner is a pawn – I get it – but this is ridiculous!"
"You could be Hux's prisoner. I'm sure you'd appreciate his interrogations."
"You're a rancorous butcher and a murderer," Poe stated. "We are not buddies." He blamed it on a concussion. Had to be a concussion. No other reason this conversation would be rattling through his head right now.
"And you are delirious and susceptible," Kylo Ren fired back. "Your ships are approaching. I'll speak with you later, Dameron." On afterthought he grumbled, "Tell Mother I'm not listening to her holograms."
"Yeah. Sure." Conversations with a Sith lord. This seemed eerily normal.
The comlink was silenced just as the whine of X-wing fighters resounded in the distance. BB-8 chittered from above.
"Yeah, I know," Poe griped, closing his eyes in frustration. "I can't understand that kung. He just – he just killed his own father, and I hate him, and now he's chattering to me about Rey and Finn and – and – "
It was the concussion. Had to be a concussion. No other reason he would fling an arm over his eyes and let it all out.
Wishing for the past.
Wishing for the days when he actually knew the kid.
Wishing he still had Ben.
Thank you to Elleth of Mossflower, My5tic-Lali, CHiPsfangirl, time2read, Lazerkat, JunJunyil, hellraiserphoenix, nerdyninjaunicorn, CrazedFangirl13, and guests HuntedRanger, Corrine, and Guest for reviewing!