"Let's get this tuned up and ready to go," I said to Q2 as we were getting my X-Wing online and ready for the upcoming battle in Exegol. The rest of the Resistance were getting their X-Wings and ships ready too, all of us riding on the high from the pep talk, thanks to Finn and Poe, and now we were more than ready to go up against the First Order.

Q2 chirped at me from his spot in the back of the X-Wing, having me look up for being perched on the side of the X-Wing on top of the ladder, already in my pilot uniform and my regular clothes underneath.

"No, make sure that the vitals are stable before we take off," I reminded the droid, though Q2 beeped back, having me chuckle.

"Don't worry, we can make Hyperdrive in no problem, you make it sound like we've never done it before," I commented as a joke. I then heard footsteps behind me, having my pause on my work with my chip as I looked over my shoulder to see none other than Chewie and Lando. Lando was looking at my X-Wing, giving me a look over and almost grinning from what he was seeing.

"This your ship?" He asked, sounding amused as he pointed to my X-Wing. I leaned against it, my hands on my hips and my head cocked to the side.

"Since I started in the Resistance," I answered, "It's not much, but she's taken me all over and I don't plan on leaving her behind."

"It's a good looking ship," Lando commented as he walked over a bit more to stand in front of the ladder. "We wanted to come by and see if you wanted to think it over one more time to come with us on the Falcon. it would help to have the face of the Resistance there alongside us."

"That used to be my mother," I reminded him, pausing for a second as I thought of her, "No, I prefer to be in one of these."

"Fair enough," Lando commented, "You know, if they could see you now, they would be beyond proud." I smiled at him, and I knew he was coming from a good place when he said that. I could see a hint of sadness behind his eyes and how he said it to me, and I felt it since he knew them.

"You knew my parents well," I said to him as I eyed him, seeing him almost give me one of his famous smirks as I continued, "What were they like, really like?" It felt odd that I was asking him this, on the brink of war, when we were about to reach out for one last blink of hope to defeat the First Order. But then again, I never asked him what he thought of my parents, how he felt about them and all in between.

"Your dad was a bag of tricks," He explained walking over a bit, already thinking it out in his head, "Smuggling my ship out from under me, never could get a good reading on him too. Always going from one place to another,"

"Sounds like him," I commented, seeing him chuckle now as he then pointed at me.

"But your mother," I raised an eyebrow at him, "She was a real beauty. When I first met her in Cloud City, I could tell she could hold her own and you couldn't put anything past her. Smarter than your average Princess," He paused, a somber look on his face as he went on, "But your dad looked at her as if she hung all the stars and moons in the galaxy. Never once did I see other people look at someone like that before, and boy did I want that for my own love life. Never got it, since no one can live up to what your folks had."

I smiled widely, knowing that all that he told me was true. My parents loved each other fiercely, even through the rough times when they fought and were yelling at each other for loud that the entire galaxy could hear them. They still loved each other and move mountains for each other if they could. When I was getting older and I was seeing it from a pair of new eyes, I was yearning for love just like that.

But I did have that, I had it in my way and my own manner. What I had with Poe was good, pure, and deep. I knew my parents fought each other before the feelings did set in, and yet they had respect for each other within the snarky comments and remarks.

Poe and I were different, we were first friends before the feelings settled in, before he kissed me under the Force Sensitive tree at his childhood home. He was beyond kind of me, showing me a side of him that he would never show to others, and he still loved me from my family dram filled past and who my family was. We bore our feelings to each other, we knew each other's souls and we knew how the other ticked.

It was odd that I fell for someone that fast since it felt like I couldn't be loved, or I would never find it myself.

"I kind of have a feeling of what that's like," I murmured, mostly not myself but I knew he heard me too. He chuckled, then pointing behind himself and Chewie in the direction of where Poe was with his X-Wing. I looked too, seeing Poe check one this X-Wing with BB-8 chirping at him.

"You and that General Dameron, huh?" He asked, almost unconvinced now as he looked back at me. Chewie growled a bit, speaking his piece as I gave him a look to not give it away. It felt like I was talking to my father again when he was alive some time ago when he figured it out between Poe and me.

"Yeah," I replied simply, Lando thinking about it for a second before he nodded his head.

"I like it," Lando commented, having em grin at him as he pointed me with one of his knowing smirks, "I'll take good care of the ship for you,"

Chewie grumbled in agreement.

"Chewie will make sure of that," I replied, seeing Lando claps Chewie on the back with this in mind, "And Lando…thanks or coming out and helping us. You didn't have to."

"I owed it to your family for all they helped me with throughout the years," Lando answered with a shrug of his shoulders, "And when we win this year and all of this is over, you more than welcome to come to me for anything."

"I appreciate that," I thanked him, "Just make sure my father's Falcon some back in one piece," I turned back around to finish off my check-off list in my X-Wing.

"Don't you mean, your Falcon?" I paused, looking back over my shoulder now to see Lando giving me one more knowing smirk. he then turned on his heels with Chewie right behind him. Chewie gave me one more growl, having em grin as I saw none other than Poe jogging over to me, seeing my interaction with Lando and Chewie.

"Hey," he said to me, standing at the foot of the ladder I was on, "What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing. Lando wanted me to go out with him and Chewie on the Falcon to find others that will help," I explained, seeing him thinking about it like he was trying to act natural about it. I knew that kind of look, something he knew that I didn't. I paused too, raised my eyebrow at him and looked down at him with an amused look, "Poe…I'm taking it you had him ask me to go with him?"

Poe was hesitant, not saying anything now as he was obviously trying not to give it away. I sighed, almost giving my droid a knowing look now since Q2 was stuck there in the one spot on the X-Wing with nowhere else to go. I finally turned all the way around, once again facing out and leaning my back on the X-Wing exterior with his arms crossed and were waiting or him to say something.

"Okay," Poe finally admitted, "I'll admit…given our recent events…and…what I did back there," Poe started to say.

"Mmhmm," I hummed in agreement.

"I'm just…" Poe said, sighing a bit, both not wanting to say it and trying to think about how he wanted to say it in the first place. It made me look at him in a different light, going down a few steps so that he wasn't so far away. I sat on one of the steps, still a bit higher up than him. I rested my elbows on my knees, looking at him with a softness there on my face.

"I think I have to just realize that you're never gonna stop trying to protect me," I commented to the both of us. Poe gave me look, as if I was calling him out and I smiled softly and carefully at him, "And that's what I love about you, among other things. But…with that being said….I know what I'm doing, as crazy as that sounds."

"I know you do," Poe replied immediately as he walked forward the last few steps and he rested his hands on my hands resting on my knees, "And I'll call myself out for not remembering that because you can take care of yourself."

"Which is why what I'm about to ask you maybe be crazy," I said to him, seeing him pause as he was watching me now and I gave me another careful stare. This was another moment that could lead to my demise now as I took in a deep breath, "Poe, when I was there on the Death Star, talking to Ben, he told me that he was going to try and help Rey."

Poe said nothing, having me think that it was a sign for me to keep going with my plan.

"If we are going to go to Exegol, somewhere out there…Rey is there too," I paused, shifting on the ladder step that I was perched on, "I can feel the both of them and the pain that Rey is in. She's going to need help, even with Ben there…"

"You're going to want to go to help?" Poe asked in a suggestion.

"If she needs it," I added quickly, "I'm still going to fly out with the Resistance and help in the fight, but if something does happen and I do need to get to her…you need to promise me to let me go," I could tell he was thinking about it, and since we had our recent fight with him not wanting me to go off and be crazy, this could be a make or break for the both of us.

"Poe," I called to him carefully, seeing him look at me now with the careful hesitance there on his face. I hate seeing that kind of face on him, it made me feel worse than I was once again doing something that was almost crazy and then making Poe beyond worry, "This is going to sound crazy coming from me, and with all the stunts that I pulled since we started that last mission, I know I shouldn't ever be doing anything crazy ever again. But this is…this is different,"

"Different," Poe mimicked me, having me look at him in reassurance as we were lacing our fingers together. I could feel how our fingers were meant to blend in with each other perfectly as if our hands were made for each other.

"I'm a broken message that's playing over and over again," I muttered, slamming my eyes shut and groaning now since it sounded terrible, "I'm doing this whole thing where I'm going out on a limb and making others go crazy with what I'm doing, losing my mom and now soudning insane—"

"Stop, Neyli. Just…stop," I stopped abruptly now, I was going to say more things against my own character. I looked at Poe, seeing him stare at me and I felt him squeeze our fingers. He took in a shaky breath before he spoke once more, "Look I know I messed up back there in the Falcon, and plenty of times before when I would try to keep you safe. But you need to understand that…you're it for me when it comes to my family. Out of all of this and all that I have left….you're it."

"I know, and given the recent events, you're kind of it for me too," I added, seeing the twinge of hurt there on his face since I brought up my mother's death, "If there is any way I can help win this war then I'm going to do it. You know that, right?"

There was a large pregnant pause, and there as once again a line drawn in the sand with us. Poe understood what I was feeling, up to a point, and yet we were still being hard on our own sides. He wanted me to be safe, always safe and always close by. And I knew that I wanted him to be safe too.

"We need to be open with each other about what we do for now on," I explained, pausing for a brief moment now as I went on, "Not that we weren't open before, but now that we're about to go into something serious, we have to be open."

"I agree," Poe agreed with me, having me give him a small smile now since so far the conversation was good, "And I know that you can take care of yourself. So, whatever you think you're gonna have to do out there….I'll support you."

"You will?" I asked, not wanting to sound beyond surprised with how this conversation was going. I could see him nod at me as he was placing his hands away from my fingers and back on the top of my legs, almost like he was balancing himself.

"I trust you with whatever it is you'll need to do," He said to me some more, then pausing and licking his lips before he went on, "I only ask you to just do one thing for me."

"Anything," I vowed to him since it felt like I was asking far too much for him to trust me to go out on my own and not have him worry about me. He even looked away for a brief second to collect his thoughts before he locked eyes with me. I could tell he was bare with me, and now I was scared about what he was going to tell me.

"Just come back to me in one piece," It made me sad that he had to tell me that, and yet my own heart was tugging hard for him. This was hard for him, to let me go and figure it out on my own. We needed a break after this, after all of this was over, and we both felt it. We both knew what we had to do, and if it meant both of us splitting apart from each other for moments, then it had to be done.

I leaned over, feeling like I was trying not to fall off the ladder, and I kissed him squarely on the lips. I held onto one of the handles of the ladder to balance myself, feeling the necklaces around my neck with Poe's mother's ring dangling in the air as we felt it there. My other hadn't was reaching into his hair, not wanting got move at all at that moment. I could even feel Poe reaching up to grab the ring that was dangling in the air between his fingers to not just ground himself there, but maybe to hold me in once piece. His other hand landed on top of my own on the handrail, holding onto my own tightly.

He pressed one more kiss against my lips, sealing it there with our promise that we just made. I knew we were getting sappy with all that was going on, I was never one to kiss Poe out in the open. Poe was fine with it, I was a bit more paranoid with how others would see us. But given recent events, and with all, we had left in our favor that could be taken away within moments, I didn't care anymore. All I cared about was Poe.

I loved him too much.

I finally pulled away, but barely moving away so I can look at him dead in the eyes. He was the General, he had plenty of people to look to him for support and guidance, and he was going to need all the help he could get.

"I'm coming back to you in one piece," I reassured him softly as our voices were so low only we could hear each other, "I'll fight with you out there every step of the way, and if something does happen, I'll tell you,"

"You better," Poe commented back in a harsh whisper, almost afraid to let me go now. I grinned at him.

"I always come back to you," I reminded him, "And you always come back to me. This isn't going to be the end of us, I swear to you." He nodded, letting in settle in now within himself. I knew what I had to do, and Poe knew what we had to do as well. So we both knew what we were coming to fight for and come back to for the rest of our lives. If this meant that I would have to do something crazy and out of my mind to make this right, to end this war, then I would have to do it.

The coordinates to Exegol was chaotic, but I was sticking close to Poe as he was elating the way in his Black X-Wing. I was taping a few buttons within my cockpit, my help fitting snug on my head as the flashes of red and range were going past us while we were weaving our way through the massive clouds and debris hanging high in the air. Finn was in another ship with Janna accompanying him, the rest of the Resistance in their X-Wings and ships coming along. We were all ready for what was to come and what could be waiting for us.

As we were getting closer and closer to the precise destination, I could feel the inner tug towards both Rey and Ben. They were close, I could sense it, especially Rey since it seemed like she was already there. She had to be since she sent the coordinates, but that also meant that she could be in some real danger. I tried to find the energy that would show me if she was, but nothing yet. There was anger, some pain, but nothing of fear.

Not yet.

We broke through and we finally made it too Exegol. I looked up in horror, seeing the vast change of colors and mood. Getting into Exegol was bright and vibrant and chaotic, but now it was dark, low, and brooding. Everything as dark, lightning from the top of the atmosphere was shooting down to give it some light from the darkness of the area. But what got us the most, what left my breath now, was the vast numbers of Star Destroyers sitting in the air not moving and threatening. There had to be hundreds, if not thousands, all in near rows and hovering above us as we broke into the atmosphere.

"Look at those star destroyers."

"There's so many of them."

"Neyli, are you seeing this?" Jencon asked me in the intercom as I was looking at the scene in front of us with shock and with an open mouth.

"Yeah, I see them," I said in a grim tone, but the infamous sound fo TIE fighters filling the air as I looked dead ahead to see hundreds of them coming our way at high speeds. The battle was about to begin as I gripped the handles on my X-Wing and I cleared my throat.

"Guys, we have company!" I said to the others as I tapped to get the weapons out and ready. We were all here for the same purpose, to end this and have the rest of our lives be lived out in peace and not under the First Order. Poe spoke into the intercom as well, having all of us be ready for what was going to come our way.

"Welcome to Exegol!"