Battle Scars

Chapter III

Poe noticed Diana looked a little nervous as she parted from her friend. He debated all night about admitting that he knew about her being a First Order defect, but after this morning he decided to treat her like every other recruit and let her tell him in time. 

As she got closer, Poe put on his classic smile, "Morning kid." 

She gave a small smile before she straightened up, "Morning Commander." 

"You can relax, and it's just Poe. It's the Resistance, not the First Order." Poe gave himself a mental slap for saying that. Diana didn't seem to mind as she did relax and gave a bashful smile. "OK, so have you ever flown an X-Wing before?"

"No, only seen them flown. I've flown smaller ships before... but not like this." She wasn't lying and Poe knew it. She was telling half-truths to keep her from being found out. 

"Excellent. Well, these can be super agile and pretty fast under the right pilot, and that's why I'm here." Diana knew he was one of the best pilots out there, but she also knew she had outmaneuvered him many times. 

"So, today we are going to go over the cockpit controls and then get you in the air. I've already been given the go-ahead to fast track you since you are an experienced pilot. So, let's get you into your own ship." 

"My own ship? Already?" Diana was shocked, to say the least. She wasn't expecting to get her own ship until she had passed some test. She looked over to the ship that was next to Poe's iconic X-Wing. It was a standard T-70, grey with blue markings. 

"What do you think? Flew her yesterday to make sure she's good to go. You can work on her more if you like." Diana almost didn't hear Poe. She was too over the moon about having a ship that her's. 

"She's beautiful." The smile on her face was the first genuine smile he had seen on her since she got here. It honestly hurt him to think about what all she had gone through in her life. 

"Why don't you get in it?" 

Diana bit her lip before climbing the ladder and hopping in. She took a look around and couldn't stop smiling. She could tell it had been through some battles already but was still fairly new. Poe climbed up the ladder and looked into the cockpit to start showing her where everything was. 

"Ok, this is where you start her up. Her engine and thrusters are over here, and her landing gear is this switch..." Diana paid attention to every detail and tried to retain all of the information that Poe was throwing at her. An annoyed beeping came from behind scaring Diana out of her focus. "CB-23 calm down. This is your new pilot." 

The magenta and blue painted droid looked at Diana and beeped an annoyed hello. 

"Don't worry. She'll warm up to you. Now, did you catch all of that?" 

Poe looked to Diana who was still processing all of the new information, "I think so..." She began to go back through everything Poe pointed out only missing a few things. Not too much was different in concept from her T.I.E. fighter. They were made by the same company ironically. 

He was impressed by how quickly she got it, but not that surprised. This time he gave her a big smile as he nudged her shoulder, "Nice. Just remember that when you take off and when you land you have to communicate it with the tower."

"What's my call sign?" 

"Let's go ahead and... say Rapier Five for now. You are under my command for now anyway." 

Diana couldn't not smile back when he flashed that dashing grin. She could see why so many fell for that charm. It was easy to like him. He was so genuine, and she found that refreshing.