Fire and Gold ⚬ Poe Dameron [ON HOLD]

chapter one ⚬ the mission

"General Organa."

  Cass stood before the former princess, arms respectfully folded behind her back. Her hair was out of its long braid and flowing freely down her back, her cheeks hollow and pale. The once-bright smile had faded off her face, and Leia had a feeling she knew why it had.

  "Commander Coven. How can I help you at," Leia checked the time, "six in the morning?"

  When Cass Coven had first been dropped off at the Resistance base, there hadn't been anything about her that was special. She had a severe case of traumatic disorder after seeing her whole family killed in a blast as severe as an earthquake, and spent her first few days at base shying away from physical contact. At first, she was useless.

  Then they started her training. And they soon discovered that Cass Coven wasn't useless at all. Turns out, she had the best aim in the entire galaxy—which they realised only after she blasted thirteen hologram stormtroopers in only a minute and twenty-two seconds within her first training session. She wasn't so useless after that.

  "Sorry, General," Cass tried an apologetic smile, which came out as a grimace, "I'm here regarding the mission you sent Commander Poe Dameron on."

  Leia let out a soft, tired chuckle. Cass had been sent to Luke Skywalker after being discovered as force-sensitive, and therefore had been the only survivor of the turning of Ben Solo. She had returned to base—her smile less bright, her laugh less loud, for she had lost her one true friend to the Dark Side. People thought she had become darker, too—she was even quieter than before, spending most of her time improving herself. She never revealed it to anyone, but in her own mind, Cass had caused the death of the new generation of the Jedi. She could have stopped Ben. But she didn't.

To the more unfeeling Generals in the Resistance, Cass was perfect. She was quiet and reserved and experience, and she was a Jedi. They didn't think she'd make the effort to forge any new relationships with anyone in the Resistance—and they used that to their advantage.

But then she did, and it was with the Resistance's best pilot—Poe Dameron. When they were together, she felt normal again. There were no fluttering hearts, no giddy smiles—they were just friends who were each other's support. They needed that support.

"What concerns do you have?"

Cass swallowed her nervousness. She was here to talk General Organa out of sending Poe on a mission of guaranteed suicide.

  "Jakku is dangerous, General. The First Order will definitely be able to track him there—which will make it even more dangerous. Not that I do not have faith in him, but the odds of him getting out of Jakku alive are very slim. General Organa, Commander Poe and I have been friends for a long time. I don't want to lose him like I lost Ben."

  Leia's breath caught at the mention of her son, but she regained her composure after a few seconds.

  "First of all, Commander Coven, never tell me the odds. Someone very precious to me once told me that." Leia smiled softly at the memory. "Second of all, Jakku might be dangerous, but I believe that Commander Dameron will get out of there alive, with the map to Luke Skywalker. There is no guaranteed safety on Jakku—that is something I cannot do—but as long as Poe trusts his instinct he will be fine."

Leia spoke with such confidence and doubtlessness that Cass wanted to believe her. But then she remembered that she almost wanted to believe Ben as well, and she snapped out of it.

"General Organa, Commander Dameron is one of the few people we can trust right now—sending him on a mission that could possibly kill him would be unreasonable. That would be one less person we can truly trust right now." Cass forced herself to speak as someone of the Resistance, and not as Poe's friend.

Leia smiled, realisation dawning. Cass and Poe were too protective of each other to be just friends. She remembered when Poe came to her when she sent Cass on her first mission to Hoth.

"I understand your concerns with this mission, Commander Coven. But this mission is not one that a regular Resistance pilot can do. Poe is our best, and we need the best to go on such a dangerous mission. As you said, the First Order will track him at Jakku. He is the only one who will be able to escape Jakku unharmed. The retrieval of the map to Luke Skywalker is essential, Commander, you know that."

  Cass gritted her teeth, her patience slowly slipping out of the window. "I know, General Organa. Poe," she had already given up on the formalities, "is the only one who will be able to escape Kylo Ren. I am in no way doubting his abilities, but with the map of Luke Skywalker and the best pilot in the Resistance on the same planet, at the same time, it is inevitable that Kylo Ren will sent hordes of stormtroopers to Jakku. That will risk the lives of all the villagers on the planet itself."

  Leia sighed sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Commander Coven, but what's done has already been done. There is no stopping Commander Dameron from going to Jakku to retrieve the map from Lor San Tekka."

  Cass's blood chilled, but she kept her head high.

  "Then in that case," her eyes flickered towards the full moon glistening outside of the office window, then back to the waiting General Organa, "if Poe is going to risk his life to save the Galaxy, then I'm going too."

Leia only smiled.

+

| author's note:
after three weeks it's finally up!! sorry for not updating—ive been spending these three weeks reading up han solo and indiana jones fanfics soo...

dedicated to doemeadows bc heartlines is amazing and was actually the major inspiration for this chapter (other than new hope) so go and read it. it is 👌, promise.

next chapter should be up in about a week or so because school is rly rly annoying tbh. there is no lie in there.

also thank you sooo much for the 2k reads!!! you guys are seriously great.

peace out,
emmy x

ps* there isn't a gif in the media bar—i'll add one tomorrow :-)

unedited