Hello everyone! Back wtih chapter seven! HUGE shoutout to sarahmichellegellarfan1 (my most loyal reviewer) and everyone who has given reviews, as well as all 50+ followers! I know it's not a ton in comparison to other stories but it's super fun for me! So thanks for the love :)

Chapter 7

Destruction

Vara was dreaming.

She saw her parents, much younger than they were as she knew them, running through a forest. It wasn't Endor, Vara knew that - it was somewhere she'd never been before. The forest was dense, overgrown and green, the ground slippery with recent rain and decaying leaves. Her parents were holding hands, leaping over logs and darting around rocks, running as hard as they could. Vara saw them from above, saw the fear on their faces. She was about to call out to them when suddenly they disappeared, and she snapped back to their home on Hosnian Prime. The house was just as she remembered: tall for just being two stories, the stark white walls perfectly clean, the angled metal rooftop gleaming in the sun. She was standing on their front steps, a teenager again. Her little brother clung to her leg and they looked up at the sky. It had turned a glaring red, bathing the entire planet in a bloody glow.

A metallic banging startled her, oddly out of place. Swiftly she picked up her brother, only seven or eight years old, and turned to open the door to their house. The handle crumbled in her fingers, turning to ash on the ground. Vorik began to cry and buried his face in her shoulder. Panic rose in Vara's chest and threatened to suffocate her like an inevitable tide.

"Vara?" It was Poe's voice, strange to hear on her home planet. Vara whirled around, searching for him for a moment, until her brain began to figure out what was happening.

Opening her eyes, she sat up with a jolt, gasping for air. The banging was Poe knocking on the door to her room. She pulled the sheet up to her armpits, covering her nearly bare bottom half and her white tank top, which had turned almost translucent with sweat.

"Yeah?" she called after clearing her throat.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure," she said, gathering the sheet further. He keyed in the code that he knew by heart and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

"We got word from someone on Takodana. BB-8 and Finn are there with Han Solo. They…" He looked up and saw her and turned away, clearing his throat. "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine. Just getting sleep where I can."

He looked back at her, his brow furrowing. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "Bad dream. Nothing, really."

"You sure?"

She knew he was thinking of the night before they tried to rescue the Yssira Zyde. She had gotten little sleep after her dream back then, eventually leaving her room and reading in the living room. Poe had gotten up early that morning on a hunch, and they sat and talked about it on the couch as dawn broke. The dream she'd had that night was more ominous, but it involved the Rapiers floating helplessly through space while TIE fighters shot at them, closing in with every second. It had seemed doomed, fated to happen, and then when Muran had been shot down that day, all of Vara's worst fears had come true, morphing from her dream to reality.

"I think so. I mean, I can't say it's like last time, but it...it feels like it."

He came and sat next to her on her bed. "What was it about?"

She took a deep breath. "My family. On Hosnian Prime. I saw them running from something, and then Vorik and I were watching the sky turn red. I don't know what it means."

"If you want to get in touch with them before we go, you can. But we are leaving soon," he said. "How old is that kid now? Twenty?"

"Almost," she said with a smile. "Next month." She sighed again. "I think it'll be okay. So we're headed to Takodana?"

Poe nodded. "We're gonna go get my droid back," he said, a determined look on his face.

"Good. Let me get dressed and I'll be right behind you."

With a smirk, he stood up. "You sure you want to change? Flying in your pajamas might be fun."

Vara glared at him playfully. He knew full well that she slept with almost nothing on. "Too cold," she said, folding her arms.

"If you say so," he replied. "I'll meet you back at the hangar, yeah?"

"See you there."

After they had been flying quietly in hyperspace for about half an hour, making their way towards Takodana as fast as they could, Poe interrupted the silence. "All squadrons, all units, come in."

The 14 fliers echoed their callsigns back to him, and his voice was different when he spoke again. It made Vara's stomach clench.

"We've gotten word from base. The weapon we thought the Order had...it's real. And they used it. Worse than we thought. It destroyed a whole system." He paused. Vara held her breath, waiting for him to say which one. Then Poe's voice came again, clearly. "The Hosnian system is gone."

Vara stared out into the bluish-white of hyperspace, stunned. At first it didn't register in her mind what had happened. She saw her parents' faces in her head, followed by her brother's, and tears began to fall rapidly under her helmet. The cockpit of the X-wing suddenly closed in around her, the switches and panels she'd had memorized for years beginning to look foreign. R9 took over control of the X-wing and Vara clasped her hands over her mouth.

"No. Oh, no." She felt dizzy and squeezed her eyes shut to fight it. "Oh, no," she said again, nothing else coming to mind. Two quick beeps came over the radio, signaling a private comm line.

"Vara, I'm so sorry," Poe said quietly.

"My parents. Vorik. They were all still there."

"Are you...can you still fly?"

Vara knew that, even though this was a private channel between her and Poe, the whole Squadron was waiting on her answer. They knew where she was from - she had been proud. And the First Order had just taken it all away. Vorik, who would have turned 20 this year, studying politics under Chancellor Villecham of the New Republic. Her parents, raising them both with all their hearts. She thought of the first landspeeder they gave her when she was 8, and how a year later they brought her to visit the Republic Navy hangars when she showed incredible aptitude for flying.

"I'm...yes, I can fly. I will." She took a deep breath and grabbed hold of the controls again. R9 gave her a low whistle. "I'm going to kill every goddamn one of them," she growled.

"That's my girl," Poe said, switching back to the regular comms. "Dropping out of hyperspace in three minutes."

As they approached Takodana and dropped into the atmosphere, their group tight in attack formation, Vara focused on the fire in her blood. She was positioned behind Poe to his right, flanking him out over the lake and towards Maz Kanata's castle. The Red Squadron was behind her, following her into the dogfight. The First Order TIE fighters came into view, circling over the castle that had been turned to rubble. It was overrun with stormtroopers, and just behind the fallen castle was a black Upsilon class shuttle. The now-familiar feeling of dread washed over Vara, but she shook it, reveling in her anger against the Order.

"Go ahead, straight at 'em. Don't let these thugs scare you," Poe said to his fliers.

"Copy that," Vara said. ""Let's get em, Commander."

They dove into the battle, the designated few going for the ground forces while the rest took on the TIEs. Vara was one of those few, and she shot at the white-clad figures before she got too close. She let the Red squadron behind her fire on the TIEs ahead while she focused on the stormtroopers, her lasers narrow and agile. She took out one group of troopers in particular that was keeping hold of three captives before looping around to make a second pass. Each trooper was a mark to her, one that had helped cause the death of her family. Vara was firing relentlessly, taking out dozens of troopers with the cannons, seeing red. She was focused so hard on the ground troops that she didn't see the TIE that was on her tail until he fired a shot. Vara tried to twist away but it wasn't in time. The shot caught the left side of her ship and sheared away one of the wings. She immediately started to lose control of the X-wing.

"I'm hit!" she said, barrel rolling away from the TIE and trying to swing around. "They took out my left side. She's not going to last long," she said, the anger vanishing. How could she have been so unaware? Nothing like this had ever happened before. The anger had taken her too far. "Anyone see a decent place to set down close by?"

"There was a clearing about a kilometer from the castle to the west, Red One." Jessika Pava, the only other female in the Blue and Red squadrons, called out to her.

"Heading for it now, thanks Red Three. I'll make contact with the shuttle on the ground."

"Red One, stay sharp," Poe called. "That Upsilon class belongs to him."

Vara didn't have to ask who Poe was talking about. "Copy that, Black Leader." After a second, she saw the clearing that Red Three was talking about. It was small, and Vara had a hard time slowing down enough, but she managed to land the X-wing with its nose in the trees. She fumbled with her straps and helmet, popping the cockpit open. It only opened two feet, stopped by tree trunk that had broken and was laid over the ship.

"R9!" she cried. No answer. The droid's power was down, and the tree was on top of him.

"Shit," Vara said. "Okay, buddy, I'm coming back for you. I have to get to the castle." She knew he couldn't hear her - it was mostly for her own sake. Vara wiggled out of the cockpit and drew her blaster, flipping off the safety and taking off at a dead run through the forest towards the castle. As she made her way into the forest, following the sounds of the fighters and blasters, she was hit with a wave of deja vu strong enough to make her slow down to reorient herself. This was the planet that her parents had been running on. They had probably never been to Takodana, at least as far as she knew, but in her dream, this was exactly the environment she had pictured. Shaking the thought and the sadness away, she pushed onward.

She had run about half the distance, following a riverbed through the rocks, when she rounded a corner and headbutted a tall figure clad in all black. It was like hitting a brick wall and she stumbled backwards a step. Before her brain even understood what her eyes were seeing, Vara knew. She felt him. The darkness that Poe had described that day in the dormitory flooded her. She stared at Kylo Ren for a moment before raising her blaster, but his reaction time was better, and he grabbed hold of her arm and twisted. The shot went straight upwards and Vara screamed as he yanked, dislocating her shoulder with one tug.

"Get out of my way," the artificial voice growled, and Vara saw that he only had one hand to grab her with. The other was holding a girl, slung over his shoulder. Ren released her arm and in a split second thrust his hand at her. Vara found herself flying through the air, and she felt a blinding pain on the side of her head as she made impact before falling to the ground. Everything went grey and she laid there, face down, for a minute while she heard him move away. She had dropped her blaster and trying to go after him would be foolish, a death sentence. As soon as he had gone, she pushed herself up with her good arm. Her head throbbed, black spots flashing in front of her eyes. She thought she was hearing things when a few quiet beeps sounded to her right.

"No way. BB-8?"

The little droid gave a short whistle, followed by a few chirps and beeps.

"They're pulling back? Why?" Vara thought for a second. Maybe it had to do with the girl. "There's a Resistance shuttle coming. We need to get you there. You still have the map?"

An affirmative beep.

"Good. Can you find my blaster? I need a second." She cried out again as she got first to her knees, then to her feet. BB-8 beeped from by the rocks where she had run into Ren, and she stumbled her way over to him.

"Let's get out of here."

They burst through the treeline and saw that the First Order ships were gone. General Organa was surveying the area next to an older man and a Wookiee. Vara couldn't believe her eyes. Han Solo was pretty unmistakable, even without the giant furry being next to him.

"Captain Hesh," the General called.

Vara jogged over to her, followed closely by BB-8. "Well, General, I found him. Took me a while, but he has the map."

"Are you alright? Your head."

Vara glanced at Solo, then back to the General. "Ma'am, I ran into...into Kylo Ren. He was carrying a girl, so he didn't kill me, but he threw me out of his way. It's nothing."

"Pretty bloody to be nothing," Han Solo said and stepped over to her. "You saw him? Up close?"

Vara reached up and touched the side of her face, her hand coming away with blood she hadn't known was there. "Too close. Nearly took my arm off. Sir," she added hastily.

"Don't call me that. What's your name?"

"Hesh. Captain Vara Hesh. Some people call me Kilo-Nine," she added, a little bit woozy. A moment later she wondered why she even said that.

"Kid, you look like you're about to pass out."

"Vara," General Organa said from behind her. The tone in her voice, the sadness and mourning, told Vara exactly what she wanted to say without another word. Vara covered her face with her good hand. The reality of what had happened hit her all over again.

"They destroyed my planet," she said, her voice breaking. The tears came again, and her shoulders slumped forward. Leia came around and took the woman in her arms, knowing exactly what kind of pain she felt. For the first time in her life, Vara lost control and sobbed against the General.

"I'm sorry, General. My head...I don't know what I'm doing."

"Let's get you on the shuttle. We're going back to D'Qar. Commander Dameron will want to know you're all right."

"How do you know about Poe?" She shook her head free of the thought, then, "My droid is in my ship. Clearing about a kilometer from here. I need that guy," Vara said, getting dizzy again.

"I'll get someone there. You need rest." She led Vara away, towards the shuttle.