A/N: Welcome back! This chapter is one of my favorites so far. I'm also in the process of putting together a playlist for Poe and Vara on spotify, so when I finalize that, I'll give you guys that track list :) Onward!

Chapter 6

Dogfight

6 months before the events on Jakku

Vara and Iolo waited for Poe in his quarters aboard the Hope One, both very intrigued. He had said that he had an opportunity for them, and he wanted the three of them to be alone when he presented it. This, Vara knew, was going to be good.

Poe entered the room, his lips pursed, his expression neutral. "Hi, guys. Haven't seen you in a while, Iolo."

"That's what's happens when you have your own squad," he said. "Still don't know why you didn't take Stiletto squad, Kilo-Nine."

"Not for me," she said with a shrug, just like she told everyone else. "I'm fine with being a Captain in a squad, not necessarily of my own."

"Okay." Poe grabbed a chair and flipped it backwards before sitting down. "The General brought this to me as a request, not an order. This is a voluntary mission. You want to take a pass, it will definitely not be held against you. I will probably think more highly of you if you do pass." This, both of the Captains knew, was probably not true. "It's verging on crazy. Entirely unofficial."

Vara leaned back in her own chair, a slow smile spreading across her face. "I love it when he talks like this. It's always something good when he starts this way."

"Is this like talking dirty to you?" Iolo asked.

"Almost better."

"You won't be able to hear it if I can't keep going," Poe interjected, his eyebrows raised. "Though now I have some valuable information for later."

"Sir, yes sir!" Vara barked, sitting up and snapping off a salute. She knew this would make Poe laugh, and she was right. It broke the nervousness in his face.

"Want to show them, BB-8?" Poe said, and the droid beeped before projecting the images from the General's briefing, including the schematics for the Hevurion Grace, which was a Pinnacle - class luxury yacht, photos of both the ship and its owner, one Senator Ro-Kiintor. Poe explained what they were looking at and why: the senator was suspected of being in league with the First Order. He'd been making random and frequent trips to the "peaceful" space between that of the Republic and the Order, delaying or completely dismissing proposals to give funds and benefits to the Republic Navy, large amounts of funds being transferred to third party affiliates and to unknown sources from there. Their objective was to steal the ship without harming the Senator or anyone on board.

"It all points to the Order, but there's no hard evidence. So we need to get to the ship before they clear the data of where he's been and what he's done."

"That's a short window. He comes back to Republic space and probably clears it within minutes," Vara said, leaning forward now. Nothing got her interested like a tricky mission.

Poe nodded. "We have to hit the ship the moment it comes out of hyperspace, we have to disable it, get me aboard, get the senator and anyone else on the ship into the escape pods and off the vessel, restart the engines, and then get out of there again. And we have to do it within eight minutes."

"That's the Republic response time, isn't it?" Iolo guessed.

"At least to the Uvoss system," Vara said, reading though the information BB-8 was still projecting once more. "It's not on any patrol routes, which is probably why he's using it when he comes back from those visits."

"The first thing they'll do when they realize that they're under attack is send a distress call. Nearest Republic squadron will need at least 8 minutes to respond."

"At least?"

"Minimum. Could take them longer."

"Then let's hope it takes them longer."

This mission was different, because if the Resistance was found out to be behind it, it could start an all-out war. Vara had managed to get three Incom Z-95 Headhunters for the mission, a ship that had been used mostly during the Clone Wars. The only people in the galaxy who had them anymore were mostly smugglers and pirates, and they were, most importantly, unmarked. They couldn't be accused of doing this for the Resistance if they were caught. Unfortunately, the Z-95s weren't outfitted for astromechs, so the droids would have to stay behind. Vara would be able to preprogram the hyperspace jumps, which made it a bit faster for her and Iolo, but Poe would have to take a chip into the Grace and manually feed it through.

Vara was in the hangar, checking through the ships one last time and making sure the coordinates were entered properly when she heard Poe and BB-8 enter with the concussion missiles. BB-8 was beeping angrily at the pilot, who was shaking his head.

"I'm going to be packed into a Z-95 wearing an EVA suit and you want to sit on my lap? Worry less about being left behind and more about making sure the concussion missiles are fitted with the right warheads, all right, buddy?"

BB-8 kept on with his angry Binary, which faded into a grumpy chatter as he did what he was told.

"I'm going to come back. I always do," Poe said. But he didn't sound sure.

"Poe?" Vara said, coming out from behind the Z-95.

He jumped. "Jeez, Vara, I didn't know you were there."

"Just doing final prep. Making sure the coordinates are in, parts are all set and functioning, all that stuff." She wiped her greasy hands with a rag and tucked it into her belt. "We're gonna be okay. If something goes wrong, we can bail. Iolo and I will be right there waiting for you if you need to evac onto one of our ships."

"I know. I just feel like there's going to be something different about this one. Something we're not expecting." He shook his head and came over to check out the Z-95 next to her. "You know, I've always found that really sexy," Poe said, glancing at the rag.

"What, engine grease?" Vara made a face. "That stuff does not come off easily. Maybe I'll give you a bottle to use sometime, though," Vara said with a grin.

"No, no," Poe said, shaking his head. "When she's been working hard and gotten dirty like that. You know?" He cleared his throat and took a step closer to Vara. "Just like you have...right...there," he said quietly, brushing a piece of hair away from her temple where a spot of grease stained her skin.

"Um…" Vara mumbled, her heart pounding. She had officially been rendered speechless. His dark eyes were staring intensely into hers, just inches away. Vara bit her lip, not entirely sure what to do. She knew what she could do, but the question was whether she should.

"Hey, Kilo-Nine," Iolo called, walking into the hangar. "That stuff get uploaded yet? I'm itching to go," he said, rounding the corner to face them. Poe had taken a smooth step backwards, just in time for Iolo not to glimpse how close they had been. Vara knew, however, that Iolo's vision could easily have seen some change in the infrared spectrum near them.

"Sure did," she said, pulling the chip with the navigational data out of her jumpsuit pocket. "Just giving this to Poe, and we're ready to prime."

Poe glanced at the three fighters, similar to the X-wings they usually flew, but still unique. "Feels strange going without him," he murmured.

Iolo put a hand on Poe's shoulder. "Muran would have been with us on this one," he said.

"He would have complained about the legroom, though."

"As much as you have so far, Kilo? Not even close."

The Uvoss system was completely and utterly boring. Two gas giants and one small iron planetoid made up the whole system, and eventually the planetoid would just be sucked up into one of the giants. This was probably why the Senator chose this system to return to after going to visit the Order. The three pilots were required to maintain radio silence, so they couldn't even entertain each other. Vara tried to imagine every possible scenario they could encounter and how they could react to pass the time. Every so often she had to readjust her position in the cockpit because it was so cramped. She couldn't imagine being Poe right then, stuffed inside an EVA suit as well. The theory was this: they neutralized the yacht with Ion torpedoes, Poe did a crazy maneuver with an EVA suit and thrusters and got on board, she and Iolo patrol the space around the ship until Poe could get everything started up and programmed, and they jump away. Theoretically a little dangerous, but nothing too bad. The scariest part for Vara was Poe hurtling through space in nothing but a suit after ejecting from his fighter and slamming into the side of the yacht. And he said they'd be the crazy ones to agree to this.

After waiting for what felt like hours, Vara saw Iolo's engines fire up. He could always tell before anyone else - he probably saw a shift in the infrared or UV spectrum - and they had learned years ago to trust when he started a bit early. Vara followed by starting up her ship just as the Hevurion Grace snapped into realspace, and the three of them jumped into action. The ship began to broadcast a distress signal and probably at the same moment her friends did, Vara reached up and hit a trigger that started the 8 - minute countdown. Vara and Iolo sent off the ion pulses, which would disable the ship's defenses and power systems. A moment went by, the yacht firing a set of defensive flares that successfully detonated as few of the ions early, but one from each of them got through. The ship went dim, blue fingers of energy tangling through it. This was their cue to split and start keeping an eye out around the ship.

Vara couldn't help but think about Poe. He had probably pressed the autopilot and undone his harness, getting ready to eject and begin his hurtle towards the Grace. There was absolutely nothing she could do unless he, only in an emergency, said something over the comms. She began her loop around the yacht, passing Iolo with no interaction, making her way back to where they had started. Very briefly she saw a tiny figure on the side if the hull, pulling out a torch and beginning to cut his way inside. Or maybe that was just her imagination. Either way, on her second loop, the power on the Grace began to come back on, and she took that as a good sign. Soon afterwards, a tiny escape pod burst from the side of the yacht, another good sign. Poe had managed to scare off the Senator and his crew.

A feeling of dread, of dark anticipation, the same kind that she'd had on the trip to save the Yissira Zyde, invaded her. Her senses were on high alert and she watched Iolo like a hawk when she could. Anything he caught before her saved them precious seconds in the remaining four minutes. Half of their time had elapsed. At this point, Poe should have been getting the engines online and plugging in the navigational data with the chip she'd given him.

With three minutes and twenty-nine seconds left, Vara heard the phrase she never wanted to hear: Iolo said, simply, "Uh-oh."

Vara whipped around to look in the same direction in time to see three huge ships come out into realspace. Two star destroyers and a Nebulon-K were suddenly staring them down, multiple smaller ships following behind. TIE fighters spilled from the belly of one of the destroyers, heading straight for the Hevurion Grace.

"First Order!" Poe shouted into his comm. "Vara, Iolo, get out of here!"

Instead, they both did the exact opposite. Vara began calculating the distance between the TIEs and the Grace, Iolo maneuvering around to face them.

"Commander, what's your time to jump?"

"I gave you an order, Captain Hesh."

"Sorry, can't hear you over all these TIE fighters coming at me," she replied, dialing in on the group headed towards the yacht. Iolo was getting closer, and in a few seconds she would take off after them. The timing had to be just right, or she'd end up being too close.

"It's gonna be forty, forty-five seconds. I can evade these slugs for that long," Poe said.

"So a minute and a half," Iolo said. He sounded almost like he had known something like this would happen. He sounded resigned. "You're a bad liar, Commander."

"I am not!" he retorted.

"We'll keep them off your back, Commander," Vara interjected. "You keep your back hard to climb on to begin with."

"You're both disobeying my orders," Poe grunted. Vara could only imagine what was going on in that cockpit. "Don't think I'll forget this."

"You can court-martial us later, sir," she snapped back. They would never leave him like this and he knew it.

Vara and Iolo followed the TIEs that were making a beeline for the yacht. It seemed almost too easy. They were so intent on getting to the Grace that in twenty seconds, the Resistance pilots were able to line up and cut the group from eighteen to nine before they broke away and tried to evade. Even then, Vara took out another two and Iolo one.

"Leave some for the rest of us," Poe's voice came over the comms.

"You snooze, you lose," Vara intoned. "Time until jump? For real this time, please, Commander."

"Another forty seconds," he responded.

Vara focused on the last few TIEs until the next set deployed. A turbolaser shot fired through space before her, missing the Grace by almost nothing. One of those shots and Poe was done for. Not just disabled, either - vaporized.

"Little help," their Commander said tersely, and Iolo was immediately on the two TIEs that had snuck around the yacht. Two fireballs and they were gone, but another group was spitting from the destroyer as they watched.

"Head for that Resurgent class destroyer," Poe said referring to the larger of the two ships.

"Say what now?" The idea of what Poe was doing started to form in Vara's head, but it was a little crazy. They were less likely to fire on them with the turbolaser if they were close enough to their own ships. The timer on the HUD was counting down slower than ever.

"One hit from those turbolasers and we're done," Iolo asserted.

"Same goes for the TIE fighters," Poe said.

"That close, you're vulnerable to the tractor beams."

"Resurgent emitters are to the prow. Don't come at it from the front." Poe was clearly set on this idea.

"Well, that settles that," Vara said. "Let's charge the Star Destroyer. Coming, Iolo?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No," Poe replied swiftly, and the two Z-95s pulled around to flank him. Iolo almost hung above him, emitting a fine mist and and few sparks.

"Iolo, check your port side," Poe called.

"I know. Not much I can do about it right now."

"You could leave," Poe suggested again.

"What, and miss this? Kilo-Nine would never let me hear the end of it."

"He's right, I wouldn't," Vara said. The second major wave of TIEs was approaching, and as eager as the pilots were, they waited for the signal.

"Break," Poe said, and the three of them executed the move like they had read his mind. Poe pulled up, Iolo spun down, and Vara cut to port, all at once. The first round of fire from the TIEs flew harmlessly by, and both Iolo and Vara sped after the fighters as they broke their own formation. Half split and went for the Grace, but Vara saw the defense turret beginning to glow. She took off after another group that tried to loop around and come again. A flash, and the turret on the Grace took down two of its own TIEs as the destroyer grew ever closer. Vara found Iolo, struggling to stay out of reach of a particularly agile fighter.

"Iolo, watch it!"

"I don't have room!"

"Cut port, cut port, I'll pick him up!" Vara strained the Z-95 as hard as she could around, following the acrobatics of her comrade. Iolo cut over, and that helped bring the fighter into her range, but not soon enough. She shot it down just after it fired on Iolo.

"Hit, I'm hit," he said, his radio fizzling in and out. "Losing power."

"Iolo, jump," Poe urged. "Go!"

"Not leaving without you!"

Vara took out another TIE, thinking to herself that she would do the same thing. As long as she was there and able to help, she'd stay.

After a moment, she heard the best thing she would hear all day. "We're going together," Poe said, elation in his voice. "Break off and jump to lightspeed!"

Vara angled onto the jump vector and flipped the switch, following the first order she'd been given since the eight minutes had started. She could only hope that Iolo and Poe were right behind as space stretched around her into the familiar tunnel of light. She released her grip on the controls, relaxing the muscles in her entire body one by one. The term 'white knuckles' had never been so relevant. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she started to wait out the thirty-two minutes it would take to get back to the ship. After the last eight minutes, that felt like an eternity.

She came out of hyperspace in front of the Echo of Hope, pulling slowly and easily into its hangar. There was probably going to be some kind of damage to her ship, but she had to remind herself that this was just a little Z-95 they'd used to go undetected. Still, just like with every ship she flew, she cared for it as much as any other.

Iolo came in as she was unbuckling her harness, much worse for wear. There was a moment where Vara was surprised that he'd gotten out of there at all. She waited for him to exit the cockpit and took the tall Keshian in a hug.

"Good flying out there," he said, hugging tightly back.

"Thanks. You too, Arana," she said, letting out a breath. "Now we wait for him."

"I give him two more minutes, judging by the hyperdrive on that yacht." He peered at Vara for at moment. "Sit down for a second, girl. You're shaking."

Vara looked down at her hands. She hadn't even realized. "Sorry. That one was just...all sorts of wrong. The implication that the First Order even responded to that signal…"

Iolo nodded, turning away. They grasped just how serious this was.

Iolo had estimated almost exactly right. Just under two minutes later, the Hevurion Grace popped into view and came slowly into the hangar. The two pilots waited impatiently for their Commander to come down the ramp, and the three of them just looked at each other for a moment. Finally, they broke into laughter, Vara leaping to Poe's arms. They all talked over each other, Vara saying that Iolo had gotten lucky but he had saved her and Iolo said she saved him first and that had been flying. They laughed at the thought of General Hux trying to explain that they had been outdone by a luxury yacht and two ancient Z-95s.

"Muran would have loved to see that," Iolo murmured, and all of them went quiet.

"He would have been proud," Vara said, her voice on the verge of breaking.

"Yes. He would have," Poe said decidedly, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Go get cleaned up. We'll toast to him."

Vara and Iolo started away, catching a glimpse of General Organa at one of the doors to the hangar. She and Poe obviously had more to discuss, but Vara would leave them to it. She wanted nothing more than a shower and a drink.