The Rebel Queen - Poe Dameron

Chapter XVIII: Failure to Reconcile

Poe

The skin-crawling hiss of air letting out of Versengen's suit was not dampened in the slightest when the once faceless bounty hunter spoke without a modulated voice. If anything, the sound made gooseflesh rise even quicker.

"Hello...brother," Versengen grinned. He was drinking up all the surprised faces staring at him in the crowd with verve.

Koa was shouting what Poe could only imagine were the unholiest of profanities in her mother tongue. An officer struggled to hold her back.

"I'll be a bug on a windshield flyin' through hyperspace," Odhen said. He looked at the unmasked Versengen and then back at Mokk-Toh. A noise coming from his throat to showcase his surprise.

The only person who wasn't the slightest bit shaken was Calista. In fact, she looked closer to disappointed than shocked, or angry, or any other perfectly appropriate response given the situation.

How long has she known? He wondered, his blaster still trained on Versengen's unarmed form. How long has she kept this from us? From me...? Something bristled along Poe's back. An inkling. A sense of change.

The thoughts ringing in his head skittered about until something cracked. Nothing large, but fragile enough to cave in from such a small revelation.

When Calista ordered the men to lower their weapons, ignoring the shouts and swears from Koa, Poe knew instantly what it was. Trust. Because for the briefest moment, all he wanted to do was defy her order, remind her she had no power in the Resistance and proceed to shoot Versengen for every member of the Rose One he'd lost.

"Poe," Calista's voice was stern, chilling even. Ice down his back that was now itching. She looked him in the eye, a look he'd never seen before. At the very least, a look she'd never willingly given him. He swallowed, knowing full well the next words out of her mouth would be an order, not a request. "Put your blaster down. That's an order."

Poe opened his mouth, blaster only having been moved an inch down, and then Leia silenced him from his flanks.

"Do as she says," Leia arrived with a large cluster of high ranks.

The men around him were faster to comply. Several officers restrained Versengen. Odhen spat, disgust in his face like he'd seen this a thousand times before. Gial tried to reach out for the burly pilot but ended up brushing shoulders as he headed back to his ship.

Poe worked his jaw as he eyed the crowd forming. Most wearing heavy-duty clothes; overalls, flight suits, medical scrubs, looked at Versengen with appropriate fear or reverent awe. It was the people dressed in fine attire that looked at him as less of a threat and more as a new piece to be moved on some proverbial board he couldn't see. Calista shared that look.

He hung his head low. The next realisation tasting as chemical as jet coolant. He had misjudged Calista, sorely. In Poe's eyes, she was different to all the talkers who called the shots. She fought for what she believed in, could handle herself in a fight, and could even go toe-to-toe with General Leia over negotiations if she needed too. She was like a rebel queen. More fighter than politician. One of the grunts. And that was his mistake.

Poe understood then, as he watched Koa get dragged by officers to a more secure place while Calista followed after Versengen instead, that Calista was, and always would be, a politician at her very core. Espionage, spies, deceptions and half-truths was the world she was born into.

His fist shook after he holstered his weapon, keeping his gaze on the ground. And then his heart grew heavy, burdened.

He could really use a stiff drink. Maybe Odhen had some hooch left.