Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Fourteen: Time Changes Us All..

Poe was fresh off a run to the outer regions searching for an old contact Leia had relied on. The mission was to locate and gain this contacts help on uniting the broken, scattered remnants of the Resistance. Poe had been running recruiting campaigns as far as the Anshar, Enikidu, and Enki systems. He had cut swaths across the galaxy from one end to the other couriering messages, assets, even support staff. He liked the distraction of flying it made the return trip easier to take. Every time he wandered farther and farther out into the black empty space he felt like he was losing the resolve he'd once had. This war was dragging too many planets into the path of the First Order. And it's new Supreme Leader. Poe had heard the rumors about Ren's climb from right hand man to the head of the war machine. Poe had always tried to keep his feelings about Ren private, he didn't want to add to Leia's pain, and he could see how with each report she recieved how she took the atrocities to heart. She was trying to carry the weight of so many souls and so many losses. Poe did what he could to prop her up, give her strength and even take some of the burden off her shoulders onto his. He felt for Leia like family. She had been the one to give him his first mission, and when he came back despite all the odds. She was the one that granted him the command of his own fighter squadron. She set the example and he followed it, he'd follow Leia Organa anywhere. Loyalty meant a great deal to Poe Dameron, and it meant that sometimes he had to keep his feelings about things private. Sparing someone an unneccessary pain, it came with the territory...and after Holdo, Poe came to understand the concept of many eyes but one view. And having to accept the fact that winning the war meant lives, and a great sum of them would be people he'd grown up with. His wings took him away from these thoughts but they were always there waiting for him when he came home. Connix had radioed him ahead of his jump that when he came in General Organa wanted to speak to him. He always heard Lor San Tekka's voice reminding him that Leia had held many titles. And that by nature of her history she had shed layer after layer until what you saw now, was her heart. Which made Ren's betrayal of everything she was, everything she'd sacrificed for, and everything she has lost, even more upsetting to Poe. Poe had to remind himself sometimes that thinking of Leia in that light, was outside of his mandate. Caring for someone as a friend, as a comrade...as a loyal soldier and compatriot...versus the heart of a child that had lost his mother early in life. The line tended to blur sometimes, but he always reminded himself where his place was...between the Resistance and the First Order, no matter who was at the helm of it.

Poe: Leia? You wanted to talk to me? Connix copied me in on a few things...nothing specific. What do you need me to do?

Leia: Poe, I'm glad you're back...and relatively in one piece must be a new record for you. You're handing all your assignments off to another member of Retcon Alpha...I've..

Poe: What?! Wait...Leia, wait..now I know things didn't go as smoothly as planned, but sometimes you have to adapt to the situation.

Leia: You shot three people, Poe!

Poe: True. But only because they would have shot me first and no one died. I brought you back intell on the regions Admiral Graeth Horussian and that got us the rations we needed for the outpost on Ijiraq. So it wasn't a complete failure...I think you're being a little...

Leia: A little what?

Poe: Nothing....

Leia: That's what I thought. I need you hand over your assignments and that's the end of it. I've got a...

Poe:But I've spent months setting up those connections. Alpha isn't going to know the nuances of these..

Leia: Poe Dameron. If you interrupt me just one more time...I'll have you sitting at desk logging in the next shipment of supplies for the next six months. Have I made myself perfectly clear, Commander?

Poe: But I snagged another ten recruits on the Yum Kaax campaign. I've been doing...

Leia: Yum Kaax? Poe..you also got shot down by the DuKain Syndicate, which police that quadrant for the First Order. Poe?! You were supposed to be recruiting help...not starting a bar brawl in some back water system that has ties to squabian death gangs!

Poe: Uh,...Okay, that's fair, but...

Leia: No! No buts...except yours in a cockpit. You're going to Mustafar. And this time try to be subtle...

Poe: Subtle? I am subtle...

Leia looks over at Rose, and then they look back to Poe with raised eyebrows.

Poe: What? I am.

Leia: Maybe subtle isn't the right word...

Rose: Discrete?

Leia: Yes! That's the one. Discrete. That generally means no fighting...

Rose: No drawing attention to yourself in any manner.

Finn: Not shooting people might be a good place to start. Gun shots seem to draw attention instead of induce the population to move along and go about their business.

Poe: Aw, come on you too?!

Leia: Take Finn and Chewie with you. Consider it insurance if things go south and you feel the need to improvise again.

Finn: Wait?! Why do I have to go? I actually have a lot going on right now. Major Kalonia was going to show me augmented limb attachments and integration of bionic limbs with synthetic synapse responders to physcial circulatory systems.

Poe and Leia exhange sideways questioning glances, then look back a Finn.

Poe: So...where is Chewie? Are we taking the Falcon? Or separate ship?

Leia: That's between you and Chewie, and Poe...I'd bear in mind it's not wise to upset a Wookiee. Particularly, if you want to keep your arms IN their sockets. So do a fly over, stay off their radar, we're going to be sweeping for any communications or transmission with the Finalizer's code attached to it. So just maintain your distance, observe and report, that's all. I do not...under any circumstance want to provoke any skirmishes, particuarly that close to an old Imperial stronghold. Do you hear what I'm telling you, Poe?

Poe: Yes, I understand.

Leia looked to Rose and Rose looked to Finn who then looked at Poe and rolled his eyes as he walked over to talk privately to Leia.

Finn: How was Rey doing? I heard she had some...

Leia: She's fine, Finn. She had a bit of an episode when she came back...but the med-staff checked her out and she's fine. Just needed some rest, and some peace and quiet.

Finn: Do you mind if I go check on her?

Leia: Of course not. Just don't push her right now Finn. She's...she's got a lot going on, and she's just trying to find her way. And the imbalance in the Force is causing...a lot of unknown things to come to light...there's never been anything like what Rey is. I'm trying to guide her as best as I can, but ultimately...she's going to have to make the choice about what she wants on her own.

Poe and Rose begin arguing, and Leia starts shaking her head.

Leia: You go check on, Rey, and I'll pry these two apart...again.

Poe: You've got to be kidding me?! No, you don't know what you're talking about...there is no way, Rose! I'm absolutely, one hundred percent the most qualified...

Finn went one way and Leia went the other, and as Finn headed off towards Rey's quarters he stopped and looked back watching Leia break up another "friendly debate" about the best progression of engine timing for the next generation X-Wing fighters coming out of Corellia. Finn found comfort in the familiar, even when the familiar was shouting voices, or the motherly chastisement of Leia bringing everyone down a peg or two. Finn watched Leia and unlike some of the others, he saw the signs that Rey wasn't the only one feeling the tilting of the Balance in the Force. Finn felt over the last year that she was silently preparing them for the next step. And while Finn knew that everything had its time and it's place, he couldn't force himself to be pragmatic and clinical when the thought of losing Leia came around. She was the Hope they'd needed when everything else had failed them. Finn still needed Leia, and he knew...Rey did as well.