A Pilot: A Poe Dameron Story

In Flames

Poe was awake in his bunk later that week, staring at the ceiling and turning his ring over between callused fingers. A klaxon from outside – signal for all crafts to scramble – sent him pulling his flight suit over his sleep clothes and his boots on his feet as he charged out the door with the rest of his Black Squadron mates.

He set to work checking the fuel on his craft, kicking the tires, flicking back the preflight controls in the X-wing, and didn't even think to ask where the Resistance forces were needed that day. It was only when Leia's hand suddenly landed on his shoulder with a devastating weight behind it that Poe instinctively knew what had happened.

Wild-eyed, Poe couldn't ask. He just shook his head slightly, refusing. But Leia nodded. And Poe knew. It was her lungs, he knew, and her stubbornness. 

Somewhere he heard Leia murmur, "Poe, I'm so sorry...one of her Handmaids said she was out with a scouting group after Ramsey, and they crossed a field in bloom —"

The cool silver chain around his neck felt like a cold, grieving hand. "She was going after him herself."

"Poe, before you bolt off, you have to know that it was an accident. A random, awful accident."

Poe shook his head darkly at the general. "No, it wasn't. He's the reason she's dead." 

Just then, an announcement sounded across the open hangar. "All pilots report to your craft. Liftoff for Naboo  in five. Repeat, all pilots to your crafts."

Poe gripped his helmet and started off towards his x-wing, brushing past General Organa even as she sputtered, "Commander Dameron, stop where you are..."

His hands shook as he prepared his starfighter for war on Naboo. As he took his seat in the cockpit and Bebe-Ate fired up the engines, Poe slipped the silver chain back under his shirt and pressed it to his chest for a moment. It warmed, and he pictured Arraii. He placed all of his love, all of his grief, on an imaginary star far away and told himself to focus on the mission.

As he flew with the full Resistance squadron through hyperspace and broke into the skies above Theed, though, there was no holding back his emotions – or his destruction.

Poe called his squadron and targeted Ramsey's grand old Empire ship. It gave him only some satisfaction to see it explode in flames.

***

Leia's voice alone could reach him on communication channels. She assigned him to return to his volunteer army down in Theed, and lead them with the Resistance troops against the Storm Troopers with Ramsey. The silver chain around his neck cooled and hurt with his fresh grief, but somehow Poe saw through it all enough to land his X-wing and make his way to their appointed spot, a smaller square in the Theed city center, to rally the volunteers.

He saw the volunteers and could barely muster a greeting. Most of them didn't know about Arraii yet, just saw the name 'NABERRIE' newly stitched on his flight suit. They cheered for the queen's consort and asked where she was. Where was their queen to guide them?

Poe faced them all, the sounds of the Resistance-First Order air battle behind him, and told them quietly, "The queen is dead." He could only just keep back the tears behind his voice. They broke through when someone asked him to repeat – the battle was too loud. Poe yelled, "QUEEN ARRAII IS DEAD." Then he gasped for air, tears running down his face, and staggered.

And someone was there. Arraii's kingdom, whom she had loved so wholeheartedly, was there for him.

A middle-aged male and female held Poe up, as another cluster of volunteers brought him a towel for his face. Poe sniffed and looked around. Even under the explosions and blaster fire in the sky, he found himself surrounded by circles and circles of people he and Arraii had trained, people he and Arraii had cared for and protected. In that moment, as much as Poe was a son of Yavin IV, he loved Naboo. He had to love it — and defend it — for his queen. 

Staring up at all the First Order starships still in the sky, Poe knew he would stop at nothing to make Arraii's people free again.