TWISTED.
❝ i'm not a jedi, but I'm not a sith. i'm me, and that's what matters.❞
Despina Anseris never asked for her mission. She never asked to see the place she called home get torn apart because of her best friend's rath. She never asked to see...
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"Hey, hey!" Poe snapped as the Futini guards hurried us deep into the fortress after the retreating Empress, pushed more than walking on his own accord. BD-1 was back on my shoulder, his feet holding on tight to my jacket so he wouldn't fall off from our fast pace. "Lady!"
"I was worried Eliz's guards wouldn't get in contact with you," Merri Laniso told me, her soft voice echoing through the large hallways between the sound of her heels against the smooth stone floors. Light occasionally hit her face from the open skylights. "I doubt you know yet, but I suppose you're supposed to learn at the meeting. Were you able to sleep at all during the trip here?"
"Somewhat," I answered honestly, hearing the urgency in her tone and feeling her anxieties radiate off of her. "I'll manage."
"Can someone explain what's going on?" With a huff, Merri turned around to face our group, a scowl on her face as she glared at the commanding Resistance pilot.
"Who is this man?" she questioned me, raising an eyebrow as she looked him up and down. "One of Jevo's?"
"Listen," Poe glared back, pointing an accusing finger at the Empress. My eyes widened and I shook my head for him to stop, but he paid no attention to my warning. "I didn't fly all the way to Carlac to be bossed around by a bunch of snow demons! I'm tired, I'm extremely cold, and I'd like to know why some smuggler princess thinks she can tell me what to do!" The hallway was silent; none of the guards knew how to react to his bold statement and I was mortified. Merri, however, titled her head to the side and pursed her lips.
"Is that all I am? A smuggler princess?" she repeated his words smoothly, and I instantly knew she was pissed. Merri stepped around me and in front of Poe, establishing her dominance despite the three-inch height difference between the two. "What's your name?"
"Poe Dameron," he answered, looking as if he was trying not to shrink. Merri turned away from him, giving me a wink he couldn't see before facing the pilot again.
"Well, Mr. Dameron," she started. "Assuming from those tiny scars on your neck, I'll assume you had many run-ins with that rip-off version of the Wayward Children." Poe paled, his eyes widening ever so slightly. "Not a member of the organization by choice of course, no, you had no other choice. Credits were probably low and you had mouths to feed." Merri paced between us, glancing at the man occasionally while rubbing her fingernails . "You came to the realization that it wasn't the life you wanted and fled when you had the chance, but those hungry mouths wouldn't listen to you. They took your place and you were cast out, no longer welcome."
"You... you don't know a thing about me," Poe stammered, shaking his head.
"Wrong, I know everything," the Empress countered. "You wanted to help others and knew you didn't have much choice in ways to do that until you most likely defected from whatever job you had next to the Resistance. Mr. Dameron, you are like all of us; you are like me: exiled, abandoned, forgotten. That's what you and many others don't seem to get about the Quad. We didn't start with all of this." Merri pointed at her clothes and waved her hand around the fortress. "We took what we could when the opportunity struck and used it to our advantage. A street rat became the leader of a galaxy-wide organization. Two starving twins overthrew a corrupt system government. A princess became... well, you see the end result right in front of you."
