Chapter 19

Poe chuckled in the silence of his empty room as he pulled off his pants and shirt from the day and exchanged them for a large white linen nightshirt and some loose patchwork drawstring pants. Things were not perfect, but he could not believe how well the mission was going. In many ways, today had been a dream come true.

Not only had he been correct that Ben was completely lovesick for Rey, but he had also been able to take advantage of the circumstances to discuss where common ground might exist between the First Order and the Resistance and build a comradery with the otherwise unattainable Supreme Leader of the First Order. He pulled out his journal and started jotting down notes for a preliminary sketch of terms for peace with a mind to discuss them with Ben the next day.

"General Organa, we may yet have peace with your son. Wish you were alive to see all this," Poe said in the air, shaking his head in happy disbelief. "And all because of love, too. I know you never bought much into fairy tales, but it's still amazing."

Of course, Rey hadn't seemed overly thrilled with Ben earlier, but he expected it was just a small lover's spat. She hadn't turned down his request to stay with her, so Poe imagined it wasn't all bad. If the Ben/Rey dynamic was still off tomorrow, he'd pull one or both aside and check in on what was interfering with their relationship. Of all the roles he had to play over the years, he never expected to be playing cupid, nor find it to be this fun or rewarding.

And he didn't even have to limit himself to Rey and Ben. While it was clear Finn still hadn't sorted out his feelings for Rose, Poe got the impression that Finn no longer felt as possessive towards Rey, whatever that meant. Poe chuckled to himself as he recalled the conversation he had just five minutes before, where Finn had referred to Ben as a man instead of a monster for the first time.

"Miracle after miracle," he said, still smiling. By now, Finn should be talking things out with Rose in her room, and hopefully Ben and Rey had made amends.

The sound of wood crashing to the ground and the hum of a lightsaber jolted him upright and filled his heart with dread. "Oh no… no no no no no," he chanted to himself as he hurriedly slipped his boots on. He heard Finn's voice outside and running, then nothing. Poe grabbed his blaster and holster belt and finally made it out the room, still buckling it in place.

The door to Rey's room was cut into several large pieces on the floor of the hallway. Finn, Rey, and Ben were all missing. Poe ran to the exit, but saw no sign of them. He grabbed a random passerby by the arm. "Excuse me, sorry, but have you seen anyone run by with a lightsaber? Probably red and scary-looking?"

The alien gave him a funny look, shook its head, and shrugged him off. Poe stared around wildly. "Anyone seen someone with a lightsaber leave here!?" he shouted, feeling ridiculous, but he had no other clue for finding out which way they went.

He got a few odd looks, and a couple negatives, but no one responded in the affirmative.

Dejected, Poe wandered back inside to find a Twi'lek couple complaining about the condition of the hotel with the manager in front of the damaged door to Rey's room. They had a small child with them who was playing chase with a small flying creature.

"Growlie?" Poe said uncertainly. The creature roared at the small child and flew to land in Poe's hair. Poe blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected a porg to recognize him as a familiar person. They had always seemed quite dumb on the Falcon. "Hey little fellow. Where's your human?" he asked, hoping against hope the porg might help him find the others. Whatever intelligence the prog possessed, it was clearly done sharing as it curled up in his hair and settled in.

"Mine!" the kid cried in basic, drawing the attention of the Twi'leks and the hotel manager to Poe.

"You! Responsible for this mess? You came in with the girl who had this room, did you not?" the manager exclaimed. He was a portly humanoid of some sort that Poe didn't recognize with long black fur everywhere but his face, which was bald with an enormous beak-like nose.

"Me? I didn't do this, but you are correct that I am part of the party responsible. I don't know just what happened, but I do apologize for the trouble. We will pay for replacing the door, and perhaps double the fees for staying here tonight?"

The manager raised a thoughtful eyebrow. "Not bad offer, but you find elsewhere to stay tomorrow. No trouble wanted here. Bad for business," he said, gesturing to the other family. "Also, you pay their fees. Trauma compensation." The Twi'lek family, which had been heading for the exit with heads held high, paused at this tidbit, and looked at Poe with interest.

Poe made a sour face, but shrugged. "Sure, sounds good. Now if you'll just excuse me, I was just heading in there," he said.

He did not know whether it was Rey or Ben who slashed apart the door, but since he was confident that it was a lightsaber that did the damage, he would be putting the bill on them. The First Order could afford it anyway.

Poe slipped into Rey's room with Growlie still in his hair and looked around for hints of what had happened. The bed was made, though the pillow and blankets were disturbed, so at least one of them had rested on top at some point. The clothes had been put away quickly in a pile. There was a dent in the wall by the door that had not been there earlier today. Still, if they had fought, he would have expected tossed furniture and broken things, and everything else appeared to be in good order.

"Guys, where are you?" he muttered, then remembered that Rose might still be in her room.

He went and knocked on her door. "Rose, sorry to bother you so late, but Finn, Rey, and Ben are missing, and I'm trying to figure out what happened."

He got no response. "Rose?" he tried again, knocking louder this time, but no one answered.

Poe sighed and threw his hands up. "What am I supposed to do?"

He went back to Rey's room again and sat down on the bed, figuring someone should guard the room until they could get the door fixed, but sitting was boring.

Poe went through the pile of clothing, sorting out things he thought Rey would use from things he thought would work well for infiltration and things that were simply gaudy. He created a small pile for Rose as well, trusting that Rey would not mind sharing with her friend.

They still weren't back.

After checking that the hallway was clear of observers, he found the Kylo Ren mask and studied how it worked, putting it on his own head for a moment and laughing just to hear what it would sound like. Creepy, he decided and took off the mask. The noise even startled Growlie, who flew down beside him. Poe raised an eyebrow at the porg and carefully lowered the mask over the porg's body.

Modulated chirping followed, then growling, then hysteria that sounded like the dying wails of a thousand souls.

Poe rapidly lifted the mask back off Growlie and stared at the porg with wide eyes. Growlie looked back at him and gave him a friendly chirp. Poe carefully tucked the mask away under the blanket where the Growlie could not access it, all the while keeping eye contact on the bird.

Poe shrugged and decided that it didn't matter how creepy Ben's pets were so long as they could arrange peace between the Resistance and First Order. He glanced back at the destroyed door nervously. Peace had seemed such a sure thing a couple hours ago.

"Poe!"

Poe looked up to see Finn and Rose coming down the hallway slowly. Rose was limping and had an arm wrapped around Finn.

"What happened? I was looking everywhere for you!" Poe said, standing up and rushing forward to help Rose into the room and to a chair. "Oh Rose, what's injured?"

"Ankle," Rose answered. "Just twisted, thankfully. Rey checked it before she left with Ben."

"Left?" Poe asked, feeling his heart drop in his chest. "With Ben?" He couldn't form a peace treaty if he couldn't communicate with Ben.

Finn growled. "That traitor turned on us, and Rey's so blinded-"

"Finn," Rose hushed. "Rey believes in him."

"Well you didn't see him use the force to knock her out. She just fell, like a limp doll, and he didn't even try to catch her before she hit the ground!" Finn exclaimed.

Rose frowned. "But we are alive and free, aren't we? I thought I was a goner when those knights captured me…"

"That monster is ice cold, Rose. You can't trust him. I'm sure he just needed us alive to continue tricking Rey!"

"Whoah whoah whoah," Poe said, waving both hands up and down to settle them. "Look, I have no clue what's going on here. I heard crashing, a lightsaber, and people running off, and I've been sitting here by myself in a wrecked room, babysitting a very creepy porg, mind you, while you were off having your adventure. Could you please start from the beginning?"

Rose and Finn looked at each other and sighed. Finn gestured to Rose, and she nodded. Poe looked to her as well and sighed. Whatever she told him, if Ben and Rey were gone, his mission for negotiating a truce had gone from near miraculous success to total failure in a matter of hours, and he was getting really sick of his missions failing.

"It started when I left to find some work at the starport…"


This was fun to write. It's not necessarily plot-essential, but Poe and Growlie!

Sticking Growlie in Kylo Ren's modulator was an idea suggested by Ardina Falconhurst in her review of Ch3. I loved it and am glad to finally have a sensible place to stick it. Thanks again for the suggestion!

Someone asked how long I plan for this story to last. I don't know. I will end it when I feel that the various plot arcs have been sufficiently tied up, and I am working in that direction. I do have other stories to tell after I wrap this up, but I'm pretty sure there's still a lot of story left to this one.

I've had others comment about how quickly I post things. Most nights, I spend ~2hrs writing the next chapter, often while multi-tasking laundry and other things. I then do a 5-10min scan through for basic editing and post. It's become my ritual to start right after the kids fall asleep, and it's been fun and fast except for the occasional tricky chapter.

Please review. :)