Author's Note: If you're interested, a lovely person made a podfic of "The Story of Finn" to be listened to instead of read if you're into podfics! Unfortunately, I can't link on this site, but if you Google "The Story of Finn" and "annabelle_myrtille (annapod)", you should be able to find it very easily! There's direct links on the version of this fic on AO3.
THE STORY OF FINN
CHAPTER FIVE: HANGER 3B, DOCK 7
Once they run out of boxes, which takes awhile because BeeKay collected a lot of boxes, Doublo follows Two back to Hanger 3B, Dock 7.
Once they get there, it's very good that Doublo is wearing a helmet, because she gapes at the ship that the older Troopers have managed to acquisition. One, Three, and Gigi are loading BeeKay's boxes onto a very nice, very new Lybbartean Cruiser that Eighteen, Sixteen, and GeeVee are visibly prepping for launch. She spots Postcard making himself familiar with the controls in the luxurious cockpit.
Burning with curiosity, she goes over to Three to help him with a particularly large box. "How the hell did BeeKay get a Lybbartean Cruiser?" she hisses at him as they heft it up together, voice thankfully lost among the busy motions of Hanger 3B.
They're stealing a Lybbartean Cruiser in the middle of a half-full hanger? And not a hanger filled with regular food shipments or general ship pieces going out, or even messengers off on data runs, but one filled with expensive, high-tech shipments and crucial, delicate parts of things and higher-ups' personal ships? Why not just punch the base commander in the face while they're at it?
Lybbartean Cruisers are high-end vessels, sleek and fast, visibly armed just enough to claim the weaponry for self-defense purposes only and secretly armed with high-tech weaponry to make it an equal to any average X-Wing or TIE Fighter. It's advertised to comfortably hold about fifteen people, with secret room for hidden cargo and passengers cleverly and efficiently tucked into its deceptive design. They're very, very, very expensive, specially commissioned, and quite the luxurious ships for their relatively small size.
The First Order sends them out as diplomatic vessels carrying First Order ambassadors to various worlds they want something from. If it's an alliance, annexation, treaty, or trade, then the ambassadors onboard deal with the planet's natives. If it's removal (assassination) or information (spying) or aggressive negotiation (extortion), then the ship's hidden ambassadors sneak out to do their planetside business. Usually the two always go hand in hand as the First Order is hardly trusting of even their allies.
Could BeeKay have chosen a more noticeable ship?
"I have no idea and I'm not sure I want to know," Two grunts back. "Have you seen her?"
"Isn't she here?" Doublo asks as they walk onboard, very confused. She assumed that BeeKay was somewhere onboard, prepping for launch, probably not far from Postcard in the cockpit; where else could BeeKay be?
Two shakes his head and doesn't answer as they have to lower the box into a cargo hold. It takes concentration and cooperation for them to manage it without falling into the floor hold themselves or dropping the box on each other's toes, so that leaves no room for talking.
"No," Two says once they're done, scratching at his neck like he's itching to take off his helmet. He can't; BeeKay has forbidden them from removing them until further notice. "She said she was going off to see how you were doing and now she's disappeared. She left and nobody knows where she is."
Doublo feels her heart drop down to her stomach then bounce back up. "What?"
"BeeKay is missing," Two summarizes, an unintentional note of fear in his voice.
Doublo's heart drops again and she's terrified. Her thoughts have been full of worry for all her bunkmates since she realized the full consequences of her actions – worry that they'll be caught, dragged back to the First Order, forced to their knees, and efficiently dismissed by a firing squad, or worse... pulled apart and reconditioned until they don't even recognize each other.
She's been pushing intrusive thoughts out of her head for hours. Death, pain, torture, she's been pushing them all out of her head – because she doesn't want them to happen and she's not going to let them happen – while simultaneously preparing herself for their very real possibility.
But... abandonment... BeeKay left them?
Doublo hadn't prepared herself for that. She'd never even considered it an option.
BeeKay is BeeKay. She's tall and solid; she's old and strong; she's steady and lasting. BeeKay has been there for as long as Doublo's existed; BeeKay is the one who made Doublo, who took a scared little Stormtrooper designated JN-1500 and gave her the only thing she owns. The old Stormtrooper is the only bit of warm color in a cold, monochrome world, a protective presence of wry humor and hard knocks to the helmet.
BeeKay can't have left them.
She wouldn't.
If she's missing then it's because... because...
"Breathe," Two reminds her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Doublo, breathe."
"I... I can't," Doublo chokes out.
She can't breathe. How could she breathe when this is all because of her? Her story told too early is what has them in this mess, unprepared and running for the chance to live a life. If BeeKay's been caught trying to save them all, then... she's killed BeeKay.
How is she going to live without BeeKay?
"Shit," Two swears, pulling her farther into the ship and yanking off his helmet. He tosses the white bucket to the side and grabs her helmet, yanking it off too and tossing it aside with his. "Doublo, I'm sure BeeKay is okay, so you have to breathe."
"What's happening?" Eighteen demands, coming around the corner with a piece of wiring in her hand. "Why do you have your helmets off? ...What's wrong with Doublo?"
"I don't know! I told her that BeeKay left and now she's missing and she just stopped breathing!"
Eighteen roughly shoves Two off Doublo and towards the discarded helmets. "You fool. Put your helmet back on immediately and rejoin Three and One. I will handle your mess." Eighteen grabs Doublo by the shoulders as the male Stormtrooper hurries to obey. "Doublo, you need to stop causing trouble. We cannot afford any attention!"
"But – but BeeKay is – BeeKay-?"
"BeeKay is missing on purpose, you little fool!" Eighteen hisses, giving Doublo's shoulders a hard shake for emphasis. "She has business to attend to and will return. Should she not in an hour, we will leave without her, but you must trust her and not ruin all her hard work any more than you already have!"
Doublo finally looks up to meet Eighteen's eyes. "BeeKay is-?"
"Capable and far more intelligent that you!" Eighteen replies, releasing Doublo and letting the younger Stormtrooper fall back against the wall. She pick up Doublo's helmet and thrusts it into the younger Trooper's stomach. "Now hide your face and try not to tell anymore stories before Postcard and GeeVee can fly us out of here."
Without another word, Eighteen spins on her heel and walks away, leaving Doublo holding her Stormtrooper helmet in trembling hands. "Postcard, you need to tell the younger Troopers things so they don't panic," Doublo hears Eighteen inform their comrade in the cockpit.
BeeKay is alive, Doublo thinks, and that's all that matters.
She stares at the helmet in her hands, smooth and colorless and with a small imperfection from where BeeKay smashed her into a wall, and leans heavily against the wall of a Lybbartean Cruiser that is soon to be stolen. Doublo takes a deep breath and reminds herself to trust in BeeKay, and also berates herself for ever thinking that BeeKay could abandon them. BeeKay is old and strong and lasting, and Doublo must trust in her commanding officer's unknown plans and not wind herself up with worry and regret and guilt.
Doublo lifts the helmet, but ends up holding it against her forehead instead of placing it back on her head. There's just... there's just so much that can go wrong. What if someone questions their loading the ship? What if BeeKay is caught in her mysterious business? What if base control refuses to grant them leave access so they can slip away quietly? What if, what if, what if?
She wants to live. She wants everyone to live. Death didn't matter before, not when it was just her with a purpose already completed. Not when the only thing that mattered was telling Finn's Story and she had no way out or hope for survival, but now... surviving matters. And life is so fragile, so vulnerable, so improbable and dangerous.
How the hell did Finn do this?
Doublo pulls her head and helmet apart, then regards the thing that keeps her faceless again. It's a blank, familiar thing, but it's also somehow not and she doesn't want to put it back on. She has to, but she doesn't want to. She never noticed how much easier it was to see, to breathe, without this armored mask weighing down on her neck and shoulders.
But with a firmness that has got her thus far, Doublo places the helmet back on her head and gives a shuddering breath at how small it feels. BeeKay and the other need her not to draw any more attention – the First Order will be watchful enough without them displaying any signs of suspicion.
Finn had to keep wearing his helmet after he rescued the Resistance pilot. Finn had to wear his helmet as he walked a dead man back to life, just until they could reach a ship and fly away. Finn had to wear his helmet to pretend long enough to be able to rip off the helmet and away the designation.
Doublo needs to wear her helmet and keep a clear head, so she doesn't do like Finn and leave a cable attached to the ship or something. (Silly foot soldier, they'd all said, never having taken to space before but trying nevertheless.) Not that she's had anything to do with the ship's preparation so far or likely will; not that GeeVee and Sixteen would ever let anything like that happen.
Take a deep breath, Doublo reminds herself, even though it's hard to breathe in her helmet now.
There is time to spare, only little while yet to wait. There is hope.
Life is a fragile thing, she's learning today, far more fragile than plain existence. She has to be very careful with it, especially since many of the lives she must keep safe do not belong to her. She has made her choice, accidentally made a choice for all her bunkmates, and now she must wait quietly until the time comes to show the world so – her bunkmates' lives are not hers to break, she recognizes that now. They have to survive first, so they can live later.
Just like what Finn did, she tells herself. So she has to be clever and brave now, and patient, so she can be just like Finn.
oOo
The ship is prepared for a flight, and Doublo and her bunkmates are ready for a fight.
The boxes have all been loaded and locked away, and the ship has been humming with readiness ever since. Postcard and GeeVee are in the cockpit, keeping the engines warm enough to take off at a moment's notice, while Eighteen prowls the ship in a decent but lacking imitation of BeeKay at her most protective, looking ready to deliver a hard knock to anyone whose helmet needs it.
Double, One, Two, and Three are unintentionally doing their best not to give Eighteen a reason, too busy surrounding the screen they've worked out displays feeds from the ship's exterior cameras. Doublo elbowed Two and Three out of the way and has been flicking through feeds for any sign of BeeKay ever since, with One hovering nervously behind her and Two-Three flanking him.
There are only ten minutes left before it is the time that BeeKay told Eighteen was the limit, the sign to leave without her, and even Sixteen and Gigi, guarding the ship's ramp like stellar Stormtrooper statues, are starting to get twitchy. They all want to know: where is BeeKay?
They have the ship to leave and the supplies to last! They're ready to leave and live! Every second that they stay here is another Stormtrooper reading Doublo's Story of Finn, and while that originally filled Doublo with euphoria, it's now filling her with dread. How much longer before a higher-up notices that there is a sickness spreading through their Stormtroopers? An infection meant to cause defection?
How much longer do they have before a higher-up notices that the Lybbartean Cruiser is infested with defectors all on the edge of their treason?
What could BeeKay be doing?
Doublo keeps mindlessly switching between feeds for another minute, then catches a burst of movement that looks like blasterfire before she accidentally clicks past it. She sits bolt upright and switches forward as fast as she can to return to that screen, ignoring the startling of her bunkmates that she causes and not even bothering to elbow away their looming this time.
Doublo lands back on the screen and feels her eyes go wide, because someone's coming their way and they're coming in style and at speed. Some crazy Stormtrooper is driving a loading lift that's had its speed limiters broken, bursting into Hanger 3B with blasterfire following them through the door. The only thing the lift – which is making evasive maneuvers fit for a messenger ship – is carrying is a single data droid – basically a waist-tall black brick that can barely walk – which would be clinging to the Stormtrooper if it had any arms.
"Shit," Three says.
"What the hell is that?" Two demands.
One just squeaks, and Doublo is silently going to go out on a limb and guess that that's BeeKay.
Doublo jumps up from her seat and runs off the ship, ducking Eighteen's grab and yanking out the blaster at her waist. She skids to a stop at the bottom of the ship's ramp, between Sixteen and Gigi with their own blasters raised, and watches as the uncovered engine of the excellently driven lift is struck by a lucky blaster shot between Docks 4 and 5.
The previously hovering machine drops, slamming heavily into the hanger floor and sending up a shower of sparks as it skids all the way to Dock 6. The Stormtrooper driver tries to maintain some level of control, but it doesn't work, and the sudden shift in momentum and lack of restraints sends them flying out ahead of their transport, all the way to Dock 8. The data droid makes an ear-piercing shriek as it too gets thrust forward, popping out of the crashing lift and getting dumped right in front of it with a clunk as the lift rips to a wrecked stop. The Stormtrooper driver, on the other hand, masterfully rolls themselves to a dizziness stop out by Dock 9.
If this Trooper wanted the complete attention of Hanger 3B, then they have it now.
Other Stormtroopers – guards and foot soldiers, Doublo can tell the type by their larger, deadlier, more capable blasters – come into the hanger, easily wielding their weapons and making good use of their trigger. Their fire concentrates around the crashed lift, which is mercifully providing cover for the shrieking droid, its stubby feet wavering uselessly in the air, and the Stormtrooper painfully pulling themselves up and back towards the droid.
Doublo immediately takes stock of the situation, because it's what she's trained to do even if she got shuffled into the messenger pilots. The rest of the hanger thankfully isn't trying to engage, hurrying to protect their more delicate and expensive cargo or to get various First Order higher-ups out of the line of fire. Or just to get themselves out of the line of fire so they can take stock too.
"Our blasters aren't enough to take them," she says aloud, trying to figure out a solution to the guards and foot soldiers coming into the hanger. There's a lot of them and only ten of Doublo and her bunkmates, and these Troopers are more trained for battle than they are.
"We have firepower in the ship," Gigi replies, as though coming to a revelation, one that sparks in Doublo too as she realizes what he's talking about. "Sixteen! Get Two-Three behind the cruiser's guns and the shields up! Doublo, go help BeeKay; I'll cover you! GO!"
Doublo doesn't have to be told twice and throws herself forward off the dock. Gigi's answering fire from Dock 7, which the Troopers in pursuit clearly weren't expecting by the way it makes them momentarily scatter, gives Doublo the opportunity she needs to run and dive behind the cover of the crashed lift. She rolls, which is always difficult and uncomfortable in armor, and comes up helmet to helmet with BeeKay just as she reaches the shrieking droid, clearly panicking in it's overturned state.
"Oh, shut up, you whining menace!" BeeKay tells it, which it seems to ignore completely as it just keeps flailing and wailing, in beeps and whistles, as much as a block with feet can manage. Which isn't very much on the former and a whole bunch of a lot on the latter.
Doublo opens her mouth to ask BeeKay where the hell she's been and why she left them without telling anyone where she was going and why she has a screaming data droid of all things, but that's interrupted as the crashed lift comes under fire again. Doublo immediately crouches lower to the ground and turns to see the Lybbartean Cruiser come under fire, with Gigi returning the favor as much as he can with his single, pilot-issue blaster.
"What the hell is Gigi doing?" BeeKay demands in a growl, ducking farther down under the fire.
What the hell were you doing? Doublo thinks, more than a little angrily, because BeeKay's kept them all waiting and worried for far too long. Doublo doesn't say it aloud only because she's far too used to keeping her responses silent, and she knows better than to get emotionally compromised in the middle of a firefight – they need to leave now and demand stories later; Doublo doesn't want her helmet decorated by bloody fingers too.
"Buying time for Two-Three to get behind the ship's guns! His idea. He's giving me cover to help you," Doublo snaps back in report, shaking with the need for her commanding officer to issue her an order so they can get out of here.
BeeKay looks at her, inscrutable through the helmet, though Doublo would guess at her being surprised. "Good idea," BeeKay says. "Grab your end of this whining trash compactor and get ready to run for the ramp when they give us that opening."
Doublo complies, tucking away her blaster and digging her fingers under the data droid's head - if this thing isn't cussing foully at them then Doublo will eat her boot - as BeeKay does the same by its tiny flailing feet. It's a good thing that these things don't have any real leg, otherwise the frantic droid would have knocked BeeKay across the jaw several times now; BeeKay gives the loud thing a smack to the foot, but that only makes it make another angry, ear-piercing shriek at her.
"Can't we leave it behind?" Doublo demands plaintively, crouched and ready to lift and move. She doesn't understand why BeeKay is risking so much for a machine; so much for slipping away into hyperspace without a second-glance like Doublo had been hoping.
BeeKay makes a harsh bark of laughter. "No. We're taking everything of value that we can get our hands on and this little shrieker is the most valuable thing by far," she replies. "She's going to buy us a future and I'll be damned if I leave her behind after so much trouble grabbing her in the first place."
Doublo nods, still not entirely understanding, and turns to check on the ship. The cruiser's guns haven't moved – Two and Three aren't known for being slow, so they probably need to override restrictions keeping weapons from firing in a First Order hanger or something similar. Sixteen and Eighteen have joined Gigi by the ship's ramp, returning what little shots they can against superior weapons and numbers.
Doublo doesn't dare raise her head to check how many Troopers have come in through the hanger doors now. She'll get her head shot off and that's not important; she's a messenger pilot, so firing back at enemies is a problem for protection escorts and her sole focus is delivering the message. Which would be the droid, in this case.
"Where were you?" Doublo demands of her commanding officer, some anger still bottled up behind her chest plate. She was worried that BeeKay was dead and that it was all her fault and BeeKay was busy stealing some panicky droid? Really?
"Distracting the previous owner of our new ship and stealing this shrieker," BeeKay answers flatly, clearly unimpressed at Doublo's choice of time and place for questions. Then she tilts her head slightly and adds in a much lighter, quite-pleased-with-herself tone, "I had to punch the base commander in the face for her."
Inside her helmet, Doublo gapes at her commanding officer. Seriously, what the hell was BeeKay thinking?
Doublo opens her mouth to ask just that, but BeeKay's helmet suddenly pops up in alert. "Guns up," she says, "Get ready to run." So Doublo shuts her mouth and prepares herself to heft and hurry, trembling with tension as she hears the whir of the cruiser's guns turning.
The consecutive blasts shake the hanger, but Doublo has no time to survey the damage or to soothe her ringing ears, because she and BeeKay are lifting the data droid and running. It's a bit wobbly at first, because BeeKay is taller and probably stronger than Doublo, but they're trained to fall into line and are making their way up onto the raised dock soon enough. They hurry as the successive thunder of massive weapons-fire lays waste to the hanger doors and everything surrounding them.
Huh, they really are just like Finn.
They're up onto Dock 7 now, far more vulnerable to blaster-fire, and headed for the ramp. Thankfully, Sixteen, Eighteen, and Gigi are doing their best to provide cover along with Two and Three. Doublo is fully focused on coordinating with BeeKay and making the delivery, her arms shaking violently from the considerable weight of the heavy droid, when an unexpected shot comes from the other direction and strikes BeeKay's upper body.
One of the other groups in the hanger, it seems, has taken stock and decided to take action.
All Doublo sees is a flash of light and hears BeeKay's cry of pain, then suddenly they're both staggering. BeeKay collapses and Doublo falls backwards, the difference of height making it so BeeKay pretty much drops the full weight of the shrieking data droid on her, and Doublo has all the air crushed out of her lungs before she even knows what's happened.
Doublo wheezes, unable to breathe, unable to see anything but the distant hanger ceiling. The weight of the droid is squishing her and her armor into the floor, and the only thing that she can hear is the heavy boom of weapons-fire and the continuous back-and-forth of blasters.
BeeKay, is all Doublo can think when she can think again at all. Is BeeKay okay?
And then Sixteen is there, hefting the droid off of Doublo and forcing her to get to her feet. Doublo turns her head and sees Eighteen yanking BeeKay up, with BeeKay's arm smoking as she's dragged towards the ramp, before Sixteen's yelling at her to pick up the damn droid again. Doublo, her thoughts squished and lungs pained, obeys and hauls the stupid machine up, wobbling again with the difference in height and strength between her and Sixteen.
They stumble their way to the ramp, just behind Eighteen and BeeKay, with BeeKay slurring something about needing the droid to Eighteen and Gigi providing what cover he can for all of them. As soon as Doublo lurches onto the ramp, she hears One, farther into the ship, yelling for Postcard, then she falls on her butt as Gigi jumps on and shoves her and Sixteen in, the ramp closing with all of them still on it.
The whole ship is shaking, first with the boom of their weapons and the blaster-fire, then also with the rumble of engines as the Lybbartean Cruiser rises into the air.
Sixteen is shouting for Postcard and GeeVee to get them out of here right now. The dropped data droid that BeeKay risked so much for is shrieking and flailing again. Eighteen is forcing BeeKay off into a quarters to check her blasted arm, both of them snapping at each other over the importance of the droid – BeeKay insisting it necessary and Eighteen completely disbelieving. Somewhere deeper into the ship, Two and Three are yelling at each other, loudly debating where to concentrate fire and how to work this new weaponry.
Doublo has very little idea of what is going on now, not having a window to see out of but guessing they were still in the hanger by the continued blaster-fire. She's so wobbly that the only reason she doesn't fall on her ass again while trying to stand up is because of Gigi's steadying hands. He tucks away his blaster and yanks her towards seats, where she immediately buckles up beside One as he and Gigi do the same. It's a little hard with her trembling hands, but it's a pilot's habit, and Gigi grabs her shaking hands and helps her.
"POSTCARD, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING F-?" Sixteen starts to demand in the cockpit's doorway, then gets thrown back as the ship launches forward, followed by GeeVee's yell of, "FOR YOU TO BUCKLE UP, YOU EMPTY-HELMET!"
The ship shudders under continuing assault and Sixteen is quick to obey, buckling himself in next to One just as the ship suddenly launches forward. Doublo clings slightly to her seat and to Gigi's helping hand, ignoring the very unhappy droid on the floor, feeling her heart rise as they do, going forwards and upwards. The shake from blaster-fire gets left behind them and with it, the boom of the weapons and Two-Three's shouting is replaced by excited whoops that mean victory.
They're out of the hanger. And since the base's ground artillery is meant for protection, not for catching a Lybbartean Cruiser in the hands of pilots chosen specifically for their speed and evasion skills, there's no way the base can shoot them down. (This is where they have to not be like Finn.) The base can probably send out ships after them in short order, but they have a significant lead and a really nice ship, so the ships aren't going to catch them either.
...They're out entirely.
"We're out," Postcard announces from the cockpit awhile later, his voice slightly awed at first and then more than a little bit gleeful. "Punch in the numbers for hyperspace calculations, Gee, and let's blow this nowhere base before they catch up with us."
"Already ahead of you," GeeVee replies, sounding giddier than Doublo ever has.
Doublo glances towards the data droid, which has now reverted to a sullen but continuous low beeping, and around for their missing bunkmates. Through a quarters door she manages to spot BeeKay's lower half on a cot, two helmets and various pieces of armor discarded on the floor, and part of Eighteen back; listening carefully, she can hear Eighteen grumbling over having a fool for a commanding officer.
The discarded Stormtrooper armor reminds Doublo of how much she wants to rip off the thing that's kept her a faceless soldier for so long – how she can now. It's when she makes to move that she realizes she and Gigi are still holding hands, which is weird because she doesn't interact much with Gigi and he's gripping her hand like he's trying to break it, and without even realizing he's doing it. Doublo decides not to call him on it, because he's facing forward and seems to be breathing heavily, and maybe it's him that needs the helping hand now.
Doublo uses her free hand to pull off her helmet. She stares at it for a moment, then tosses the horrible thing away from her with more force than is probably necessary and less than she wants to. Watching it thunk against the floor and then roll to a stop, useless and forever discarded, makes her heart want to explode with something she doesn't know how to describe besides exhilaration beyond joy.
They're not the first, and they won't be the last; they likely won't be remembered as dangerously Finn was, and they didn't manage to slip away quietly; but that they've done it at all is what matters.
They did it.
She reaches out and takes One's hand too, which clearly startles him, but he doesn't shake her off. Doublo's glad for that, because she needs both hands holding something so she doesn't... she doesn't even know what she's trying to stop herself from doing, but it feels like it might be absolutely everything at once, and this hand-holding thing feels like it might a good way to prevent that.
"Jump to hyperspace," Postcard says, "in 5... 4... 3... 2..."
oOo
Author's Note: This fic is finished and chapters will be posted daily until it's complete. There will be 7 chapters.