Yavin 8, of all the places. Poe brought their ship down into the icy snow at the co-ordinates that Luke had given him. There was another vessel nearby. Apparently there was an impenetrable all around this temple that no ship could get through. He stared out at the snow in disbelief. He had been living just a few moons away on Yavin 4. He had been back there recently. He could have just gone straight there. He never would have known that the oldest Jedi temple in the galaxy was so close to his stomping ground. Poe powered down the engines, staring out at the freighter class vessel that was a little bit away from them. He was hard set to see the ship through the icy blizzard.
"I'm pretty sure that's the Millenium Falcon!" Poe called out. Rey would know, she'd flown it. He felt a pang of jealousy build up alongside his excitement at seeing the legendary ship. He didn't care what anyone said, he knew that this was the ship that had done the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. 14 was just an insult tacked on to the myth. He took a second for the fact that Dara was Han Solo's daughter to really sink in. Another one of his heroes. An absolutely amazing pilot.
He swivelled out of his chair, and jogged back into their small ship to tell the others what the plan was. He needed to check out that ship, to see if she was on it. Finn stared past Poe out the large window at all the ice and snow. He looked less than pleased. Poe had to agree. He hated the cold. It just made him sad, and irritable.
"Did you say the Millenium Falcon is out there?!" Rey looked at him with big eyes. He nodded.
"Yeah. Banked up ahead. We should check it out. Make sure she's not there before we wander off into the snow." Poe knew he was making perfect sense, so nobody questioned him. "Wrap yourselves up as warm as possible. It's a blizzard out there." He frowned as he pulled a thick quilted coat on, lined with fur. He pulled on a pair of thick mittens and looked around for some blasters. He was going to pack a bit heavier than usual. He had a feeling they would need some firepower. He felt fear. This was an ancient place. Many things were drawn here, he thought. Much depended on it.
The other two were covered up just as intensely as Poe. He nodded his approval. He really didn't want anyone losing fingers to hyperthermia. He handed out blasters and bent down to have a quick chat with BB-8.
"Are you sure about this?" The little droid protested yet again, and demanded that it not be left behind. "Okay, okay! But if you freeze your circuits off, don't come crying to me!" He opened the door and stepped out into the snow, leading their cold and dreary band. The wind was howling, blowing ice into his face. It felt like shards of glass piercing his skin. He pulled up a scarf and threw his shoulder into the wind, heading towards the barely visible Millennium Falcon. He cast his eyes up to the sky. The clouds were almost black. This snow-storm was only going to get worse. He would endure worse for Dara. Reaching the Falcon was a difficult task, but after five minutes they managed it. Getting in out of the storm was a massive relief. Despite the short amount of time they had been outside, they were soaked and shivering. Finn and Rey were complaining loudly about how terrible the weather was. Poe held up a hand and silenced them. He raised his blaster and walked slowly through the ship, checking every corridor. Just because they knew the ship, didn't mean they knew whoever was on it. Rey and Finn followed slowly, Finn with his blaster at the ready, just a bit behind Poe, and at any junction at his side. It was always nice to have another soldier to watch his back.
Poe rounded a corner and found a gun pointing straight into his face. He took a step back and put his hands up.
"Whoa! Easy there." He looked past the gun, a bowcaster. He saw copious amounts of fur. "Chewbacca! So that's how she got here. Is she still here?" Rey and Finn behind him audibly relaxed. The wookie lowered his weapon and bleated at him. He complained loudly about how they had scared him half to death and how he thought he was being robbed. Poe resisted the urge to roll his eyeballs.
"Listen, Chewbacca, Dara has gone to the First Temple of the Jedi, but we need to stop her. She's going to sacrifice all her emotion. She won't be the same person. Is she gone, and how long ago did she leave?" Chewbacca roared and bleated in anger and worry. Dara mustn't have told him. The poor Wookie. Poe reached up and patted him on the shoulder. He had to stretch up on his tiptoes to comfort him. "Well we need to find her. We need to stop her. You gonna help us?" Chewie agreed emphatically. The search party for Dara was just getting bigger. More eyes the better… Poe thought. If the General and Luke could be here, he knew they would be. She had people who cared about her. He only wished that she could see them all there, rallying for her. He hoped they weren't too late.
Poe knew there was something wrong. The second they came within sight of the temple, he could tell that they weren't the only ones there. Poe gripped the blaster as tightly as he could and slowed his pace, hunkering down a little bit. There was no point in walking straight into a trap. He stopped them all with a swift hand signal. He pulled out a pair of binoculars. Looking into the distance, he felt like his heart had stopped cold for a second.
"First Order…" he said, through gritted teeth. He zoomed in, following a pacing figure in a black robe. He broke out into a cold sweat. "Dammit! We're too late." He stood up stuffing the binoculars away. What were they meant to do now? Dara was definitely holed up in that Temple, doing who knows what. And she was surrounded by the bad guys? How was Poe meant to get to her? Before he could even think about a solution, he heard a voice.
"Drop your weapons!" His heart leapt uncomfortably. "Hands behind your heads!" Poe reluctantly set his blaster down. With the howl of the wind, he didn't hear them sneak up on him. He remembered the other, smaller blaster tucked away within the folds of his heavy coat. The thought comforted him. Rey protested a little, but was ultimately overpowered. The four of them were brought roughly towards the temple. Chewbacca roared into the wind at the group of ten Stormtroopers that had surrounded them.
"Ren will be pleased that we got the traitor and his little boyfriend." Poe rolled his eyes.
"It really took ten of you guys to get us? Wow… Well nice to see Kylo Jerk has stopped underestimating the Resistance." That snarky comment was rewarded with a sharp belt in the stomach. He laughed it off as a the pain spread. It took them a while to struggle into the perimeter of the Temple. The wind died into an eerie stillness and silence. In the distance he could see the storm still raging. He felt a shiver down his spine. God damned Force. They moved faster now, towards the pacing figure in black. Poe actually dug his heels into the ground. Fear gripped him. This was the monster he had been having nightmares about. The pair of Stormtroopers that held his arms tightly, threw him down at the feet of Kylo Ren. He heard the other three being discarded similarly. He wished he could talk to them, tell them it would be okay. But it wasn't going to be okay. They hadn't expected the First Order to catch up with them as quickly.
"The best pilot of the resistance graces us with his presence. Strange that I got here before you, if you're such a good pilot." Kylo Ren's horrible voice pierced Poe with a lance of terror and revulsion. Poe kept up a cool, calm façade. He wouldn't let it show. He had to be strong.
"Looks like your stuck outside. Not as strong as your sister? And here I thought you were the most powerful thing in the universe." he said with a smirk. Kylo Ren looked fit to burst. Before he could retaliate, however, he looked up at the door of the Temple. A figure was emerging.
"NO!" Rey shouted. Poe couldn't bear to look, but he had to. His heart was in his throat. Her long white hair framed her deadpan face. Her gorgeous hazel eyes slid over him, as though he weren't there. She walked out slowly, and Poe knew, she was gone.