//God Speed Rebels\\

i

"Officer Caden, your assistance is requested by General Organa."

I begin to jog quickly to the main deck after hearing a voice on my radio buzz in my ear. My feet pound swiftly against the metal ground as I turn onto the main deck. I stop dead in my tracks as I see officer Dameron standing at ease in front of General Organa, who is sitting in the captain's chair.

"Officer Dameron..." I state, quite out of breath. He turns and looks to me with skepticism.

"What are you doing here, Caden?"

"I sent for her."

Dameron and I turn to General Organa.

"I will be sending you two on a mission."

Really? Me with Poe? Does she not know how poorly we get along?

"I know that you two are known for having a -- tough... relationship. But I hope you both will put that behind you and look to what is at stake here." The old, but fair woman takes a deep breath while resting a hand on the control table. "I need you two to find my brother, Luke Skywalker. The Jedi need to return."

I look to her and nod. I see Poe do the same, but in an uncertain manner.

"General, may I ask where we will be going?"

"Jakku. There, you will find a map to Luke and will bring it back to us so we can finally find him."

Poe nods slowly before stepping back into place.

"I also want you to take one X-wing. We don't want to be seen by the First Order."

Dameron looks to me before looking back to General Organa.

"Ma'am, we both are great flyers, I don't think that's necessary--"

"It is if I say it is. Do as I say, Poe."

He falls back into line and clears his throat. A smile creeps across my face as General eyes me. She smiles before waving for us to leave. Poe watches me as he turns around and walks past me. Once we are both speeding towards the flight deck, I stride up next to him.

"I'm flying." He says quickly.

I narrow my eyes at him.

"She called me first, so that means I need to fly. Don't think I won't leave you here."

"General said I have to come with you." I retaliate.

"I have BB-8--"

"Yeah. A robot--"

"A robot that is more sophisticated than you, Caden."

I roll my eyes in response before thinking back to the time I almost shot his X-wing down. We turn onto the flight deck and make our way towards Poe's fighter.

"Fine. I guess Leia wanted me to come to be your bodyguard." I mutter coolly.

Poe stops dead in his tracks and stares me down. An awkward pause rose as he watches me.

"The only reason you're here is because General Organa wants us to get along. So follow my lead and she'll never know we didn't."

I swallow the saliva that rose in my throat. My cheeks burn with embarrassment as he watches me for a moment longer. Then, he begins to walk towards the locker rooms, signalling for me to do the same. After Poe walks into the men's locker room, I slam open the girl's locker room door and stomp to my locker. I pass several others and they watch me as if I've gone mad. I rip open my locker and quickly pull out my orange uniform.

"You look pretty pissed, Al."

"You think?! I got stuck in a mission with Dameron--"

"Hah! Really?"

I turn to look at the Zeltron girl, Strife. Her long blue hair is pulled into a ponytail as she pulls on her normal, but revealing clothing.

"I just don't understand what Leia is thinking-- oh! I'm going to put the two people who hate each other the most on the same mission, in the same X-wing, to go to Jakku on a top secret mission. They need to stay quiet, in close proximity with each other and trust the Force..."

I quote with my fingers, causing Strife to let out a small chuckle.

"I mean, what is going through her head?"

Strife shrugs her shoulders before taking out her hair and looking into the mirror.

"He's hot. Just get to know him, hun." She says as she turns back to me.

I roll my eyes.

Every time I talk to anyone about Poe, they automatically fan girl over him. I don't understand what they see in that man. He's striking, but also irrational and reckless. I just don't get it.

Once I finish getting into my uniform, I grab my helmet and walk out of the locker room to see Dameron climbing up a ladder into his X-wing. I jog up and begin to fashion my thick, brown hair to fit into the helmet. I feel a thump on my leg as I pull my helmet on and look down to see BB-8.

"Hey, buddy!" I exclaim while squatting down to him.

He whirs happily before nudging into my leg again. Then he begins to talk in his language, which I had to learn on becoming part of the Resistance Air Force.

"Yes, I'm coming this time -- unfortunately." I grumble.

He immediately starts to yell at me and ask why I don't want to come. I roll my eyes before pointing to Dameron. BB-8 looks to the officer then back to me and whirs understandingly.

"Yep." I mutter before hearing a large alarm go off. BB-8 spins towards the X-wing and sits under it as Poe picks up the droid and places it at the top of the fighter. Dameron hops onto the nose of the plane and pulls the front seat forward, motioning for me to climb in. I roll my eyes and climb the ladder, hopping into the back and plopping down. I adjust my headset -- which, unlike his black helmet, mine has a blue Resistance symbol on it. Poe pushes his seat back and sits down quickly while starting up the fighter.

"Systems, check. Headset, check. Passenger, check. BB-8, check."

"Annoying checklist," I yell loudly into the headset while leaning forward. "Check!" I snap peppily. Poe looks over his shoulder and narrows his eyes -- a warning for me to stop acting childish, which he's done on several occasions -- then continues to get ready. After what felt like hours, he signals the all-clear to a soldier on the platform and a speaker calls out telling everyone to clear the platform. I lean forward and look out the window of the tight space, watching the people jog quickly to safety just before Poe pulls up and begins to float in the air. Slowly, he turns the plane and moves towards the exit tunnel. As we line up with the end of it, we fly quickly until we are out in space. The stars dot the area around us, I take a deep breath, breathing in a sense of comfort in the stars. I see Poe eye me out of the corner of his eye, but I ignore him. Then, he clicks a few more buttons and flips the switch to kick us into hyper speed. The engine roars as we zip forward. A few minutes pass before we stop just a few miles out from the planet of Jakku.

"Here we are... Jakku." Poe whispers as he readies for a landing. We fly around to the dimming side of the planet and land outside of a small village. The officer pops open the top and hops out. He pulls his seat forward and lends a hand for me to take. I smack it away and pull myself out of the ship, ripping my head set off and releasing my hair from its tangled mess. I turn to see Poe grabbing blasters out of his X-wing and clicking the release button to let BB-8 out of its seat. He walks over to me and hands a blaster to me.

"For protection. I need you and BB-8 to keep guard."

I take it quickly from him and look at it. The sun glimmers on the metal gun; giving its last sperse of light to Jakku before it disappears.