"Poe, wake up."
The voice pries apart his cloudy dreams. He blinks. Finn stirs next to him.
"Wake up."
"Rey?" Finn groans. Poe cracks one eye open.
"What?" Poe squints. "You're back!"
"Yeah," Rey states. "And I need you."
"What time is it?" Poe asks, wincing. Sleep tethers itself to his eyelids, trying to pull him down again. He blinks and tries to focus on Rey.
"Just after midnight. It can't wait for morning." She crosses her arms and saunters back out to the living room.
"Fuck," Poe groans.
Finn climbs out of bed and flicks the light on. "Damn you!" Poe hollers. He drags himself up and grabs a t-shirt to pull over his head.
Poe stops in his tracks when he sees just who sits on his couch, awkwardly patting Beebee-Ate, the little traitor. "Oh my God. You."
"Me," Kylo Ren agrees with an arched eyebrow. Rey settles down next to him, entwining her arm with his and casting Poe a pointed glare.
"The fuck?" Poe questions. Finn shrugs.
"We need help," Rey says. "Snoke's going to be looking for both of us."
"Both of—what—you too?" Poe does not understand and his blood caffeine levels are in the negative.
"I quit FO Tech," Kylo admits, eyes skittering from Poe to Finn.
Finn sighs and drops onto the armchair. Poe leans against it, his leg aching. "Why?" Poe demands.
"Because they're—" Kylo swallows and glances at Rey. "They're doing all that you think they're doing. Selling their weapons on the side to violent groups, and worse."
"Okay…" Poe says slowly, dragging his hand through his hair. "So, you're confessing?"
"Yeah." Kylo meets Poe's eyes. "They're also working on some deal with the Starkiller group."
Poe's joints stiffen. Ice coats his veins and his thoughts coagulate. "I—what?"
"That's the big project they're working on now. Mostly it's a guy named Brendol Hux, Jr… and me." Kylo covers his face as if he's actually ashamed. "Snoke asked me to help out. I swear I never worked in that part of the company before. Hux handled the behind the scenes deals, and I did the over-the-surface ones." He leans forward, voice muffled. "I knew about them, though. And the reason he's working with them is that the money he gets—he can use it to work on more weapons. Mass destruction weapons."
Rey shakes her head. "The Starkiller group?"
"Oh my God," Finn says.
"I can't do it. I can't." Kylo lifts his face, looking to Rey, to Finn, to Poe. "Rey says you can help."
"You left," Finn interrupts as Poe opens his mouth.
"Uh—yeah."
"You're doing the right thing," Finn says, voice soft but solid.
Kylo blinks and gapes at Finn. Rey wipes at her eyes, and everyone in the room looks at Finn like he's amazing, like he's a treasure.
"What?" Finn asks, squirming backward in the armchair.
"You're awesome is all," Poe tells him, fumbling to take out his phone and record. "Okay, Kylo—how much of this deal has gone down? What are the terms, exactly?"
Kylo recites what he knows. "The shipments go out tomorrow at ten in the morning."
"Tomorrow—what?" Poe glares at him. "A little last minute, huh?"
"It's better than not at all," Rey retorts.
Poe shrugs. "Look, do you have proof with you? Like files and shit?"
Kylo groans. "Shit."
"I'mma take that as a nope. I'll call my contacts at the FBI and see what they can do." Poe bites his lip. "But without that, I can tell you right now, they aren't going to be thrilled to act on hearsay. Do you have any emails or anything on your phone?"
Kylo shakes his head. "I'm not allowed to have them anywhere except on the server at FO Tech. It's an informant. A tip."
"Not enough to act this quickly," Poe snaps, praying he's wrong even as he dials the number, limping into his room.
Within minutes, Poe's hopes deflate. "We've received no such intelligence," Lando Calrissian tells him.
"Well, now you have," Poe insists.
"No, Poe. You know I like you, but you're not—your reputation's not exactly stellar anymore. Not everyone at the Bureau took kindly to your leaving and running your own investigations for Alderaan House, which should be spending its time helping people anyways."
This is helping people! Poe wants to scream. Who the fuck are you to judge? "Please. I believe him." I can't believe I'm saying this.
"No can do, Poe. Unless you want to get evidence—"
"If the shipment of weapons goes out at ten am—"
"Yes, I see that FO Tech has a perfectly legal transport scheduled for tomorrow at ten. I want to believe you, Poe, but I need more to go on. I'm sorry."
"This," Poe seethes. "This bureaucratic red-tape bullshit is exactly why I quit. I mean, I get that the rules are there for a reason, but when you're refusing to act on perfectly good—"
Click. Poe glares at his phone. Dammit.
He storms back out and knows the look on his face gives it away. "No go."
"I can't let more people die because of me," Kylo insists. "If I go to the police and turn myself in—"
"Trust me, pal, the local police ain't gonna be any more efficient."
"I can go back," Kylo says, threading his fingers through Rey's. "Tonight. Download my files. My emails. If I get them on a thumb drive and you send them to your friend, that'll be enough, won't it?"
"Yeah." Poe exhales. Would Kylo Ren really do that?
"So you're going back tonight?" Finn demands.
"I still have access. I doubt Snoke's vetted me out of the system so quickly." Kylo swallows.
"Yeah, but you don't have a car to get over there," Rey points out. "We took a taxi."
"Won't there be guards and security cams? If someone sees you who happens to know—" Finn starts.
"I doubt it's that risky." Kylo shrugs.
"Okay then." Rey crosses her arms. "Let me come with you."
Kylo's face blanches. "No."
"Well, if y'all are using my car, I sure as hell get to dictate who comes," Poe counters. "If Rey wants to keep me company, she's allowed."
"And you're just going to sit in the parking lot like a sitting duck?" Finn snaps.
Poe scowls. "I have a weapon. On second thought, Rey, you're not coming. We'll go alone."
"Oh, yeah, that really worked out last time. Your nose is still a little bruised," Finn snarls.
"Neither of us are going to sit around and wait while the two of you go there!" Rey shouts.
"We have training!" Poe yells back. "At least I do, and he's kind of necessary." He beckons to Kylo. "Let's go. Now."
Rey sends Finn a pointed look, and Poe's boyfriend settles back as if in acceptance. Poe's suspicious, but he doesn't have time to question. He leans over and catches Finn's lips with his own.
Rey grabs Kylo by his collar and pulls him in for a kiss.
"I'll be back," Poe promises Finn in his best Terminator voice, before it melts away. "I promise. And I'll text when I'm not driving."
"You better," Finn warns him, clutching the back of Poe's neck, his breath hot against Poe's face. "Okay?"
"Working past one am in a desperate attempt to stave off Snoke's favorite?" Phasma taunts as she saunters into Hux's office space.
He scowls. "Tomorrow's an important day."
"Yeah, I imagine so." Phasma leans over, drinking her coffee.
"Why are you still here?" Hux gripes. He doesn't like this woman. He doesn't like how her voice sets every nerve in his body aflame, how blood surges when she leans across the table, her low-cut shirt revealing far more than she would during a work day. He doesn't like remembering that one night when they both worked late, too late, under too much stress and she expressed worry about one of her recruits.
All he'd intended to do was reassure her that she was good at her job, and any weakness was the engineer's fault. And then his mouth found hers, and Hux hates himself for thinking of it every time he hears her voice sloshing through the air.
Phasma doesn't answer, because of course she doesn't. She probably has him figured out more than he has her figured out, and Hux hates that too.
All he knows about her is her body, and he wants to know more.
As if reading his thoughts, Phasma cocks her head and half of her lips perk up. "What do you think about the Starkiller project?"
"It's about to go down and I have—"
"Not the logistics, Hux." She shakes her head, and he slinks down in his chair. "What do you feel about it? What's your opinion? You do have those, don't you?"
"Many," he retorts, face flushing. He scowls at his computer.
"So about the Starkiller…" Phasma prompts.
He shrugs. "It's necessary, isn't it?"
"That's not an opinion."
"Isn't it, though?" Hux laughs. "Because what if it's not?"
Phasma's smirk vanishes. She takes him in with her eyes wide. "What do you think?"
"I think… I don't like it." Hux shrugs, his voice a whisper. "Not that there's a point to that. Snoke knows best, and none of it matters anyways."
"I don't like it either," Phasma informs him. Hux's heart jolts. "It's bad for the company."
It's bad on so many levels. Hux shakes his head. "You don't even know."
"What?"
"Kylo Ren just quit. Snoke told me." Hux sighs and hears the air shake. Pull yourself together.
Phasma smirks again, and Hux wants to wipe that smirk away. "Well, that's good for you, now isn't it? You get to be the heir presumptive to FO Tech."
Hux snorts. "Asking for a promotion already?"
Phasma laughs, and for the first time, it's musical, no mockery sheathed within.
"You want to know why I'm here so late?" Hux demands. "It's not because of the Starkiller project. Snoke wants me to locate Kylo Ren. Logically, he's got to be at his girlfriend's, because he isn't at home."
"And?"
"I'm afraid to do it. Not afraid," he rushes to clarify, to lie. "And I need to. Because Snoke's afraid Kylo Ren will go to the police."
Phasma's nose wrinkles. "You really think he'll want to spend all that time in prison himself?"
"Possibly." Hux shrugs. "He's been so different since he started seeing that girl. A homeless barista girl." He doesn't understand. He doesn't understand at all. Kylo Ren had it all. He had Snoke's favor. He had accomplished all he could—he ordered his father beaten, in front of Hux even—he had everything Hux bloody wanted, and he's throwing it away, throwing them all away, for that girl.
Something aches inside Hux's chest. Too much spice with his dinner, no doubt.
"She's innocent, Hux," Phasma says.
"You threatened her," Hux snaps. "You told me."
"It was an empty threat directed more at Finn than her." Phasma swallows.
"You don't want me to do it," Hux says, staring at her and reading all the waves coming off her, and God, it's like he's seeing it all, another dimension, for the first time. "You don't like this Starkiller project any more than I do. You probably don't even like the other projects—"
"I don't," Phasma cuts in, agreeing.
He rounds his desk, stalking over to her and tilting his head up to look in her eyes. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Why would I think you'd want to know?"
"I have to do this," Hux mutters. "And then—and then—or—and—then—leave."
"Leave?"
"I can't do it again. I can't do it even now. Not just Kylo Ren and his pathetic street girlfriend—"
"You know I came from the streets," Phasma interrupts.
Hux freezes. "What?"
"I ran away after… my parents got in a particular bad fight. Or really, they were united, fighting me." She smirks again. "FO Tech offered me a way out. I thought it'd be poetic justice. And now…"
"If I don't, we'll all go to prison," Hux says.
Phasma shakes her head. "Not me."
"How do you plan to avoid that?" Hux demands, fear—oh, God, fear—creeping up his chest. She won't harm herself, will she?
Hux's father killed his mother with an FO Tech gun one night. An accident. And he called his son, crying and screaming, the only time Hux ever heard his father cry.
And then there was a gunshot, a second gunshot, Hux imagines. He never heard the first one, but now he hears it all the time. Every night.
Does this place deserve your loyalty?
"I'm going to run," Phasma declares.
"Where?" Hux scoffs.
She shakes her head. "Just run." She hesitates. "You could come with me."
"What?" Hux gapes at her.
"What do you have here?" And she bends down and kisses him, and dizziness sweeps Hux up in its arms.
He gasps and pulls away. A mistake, she'd said. "Why are you doing this?"
Phasma doesn't smirk. She doesn't smile. She just looks at him, pulls his doubts from his brain and tells him: "Not out of pity."
Hux digs his mouth deeper into hers, falling backwards with her on top of him.
His father wouldn't respect a single decision he's making—reneging on helping Snoke, running from the law, refusing to see the Starkiller deal carried to fruition, letting a woman convince him to come away with her, letting her ride him.
Good thing I'm not you, Dad, Hux thinks as Phasma starts and electricity shoots through him, carrying him far, far away.
"Are you calling Luke or am I calling Luke?" Finn questions as soon as the door clicks shut behind their boyfriends.
"You are." Rey folds her arms. "I'm still not quite ready. But we need him."
"Great." Finn wonders how he's gonna handle the news that his psycho nephew is trying to regain a little moral clarity.
He dials. Luke answers on the fifth ring. "H'llo?"
"Hi Luke. It's, uh, it's Finn."
"Is something—"
"Well, kinda, sorta, yeah. Kylo Ren showed up here. With Rey. And he gave Poe all sorts of confessions." Finn launches into an explanation as Rey yawns in the backdrop. Beebee's gone back to snoring.
"I'm on my way," Luke says instantly. "They could use another person."
"How about three other persons?" Finn asks. "Will you pick us up?"
"Sorry." Luke hangs up.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Finn complains.
"We can call a taxi," Rey suggests.
Finn shakes his head. "Two cars might look suspicious enough at this time of night. Do we really want to risk alerting security?"
Rey groans and slumps back down.
"Hey." Finn drops next to her, and she leans her head against his shoulder. "They'll be all right. Poe promised."
"And then Ben'll go to jail." Rey shakes her head. "I know he deserves it, Finn, I do, but—"
"You love him," Finn finishes.
"Yeah."
"I changed," Finn murmurs. "So has Ben, by some miracle." If he'd stayed… if he hadn't had that panic attack when the news showed those videos, he could have wound up like Kylo, like Ben.
He can't hate the guy.
Someone buzzes their apartment. Rey leaps up, fury in her eyes. "Is it—"
"Yeah?" Finn snarls as he presses the button.
"Finn, it's Leia."
"Oh," Finn gasps as Rey leans back against the wall. "Hi."