Confronting Fear

Goals

"When all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through"

Move Along - The All American Rejects

"I don't know Chewy, I don't fucking know!!" Finn screamed as Chewy roared in his face in the Falcon's cockpit. He sank into the worn copilot's chair defeated, his face in his hands. "I don't know." Chewy muttered something Finn couldn't completely make out, but distinctly heard the word "idiot".

It had been an hour since they'd left Ren's hangar and things had somehow gone from bad to worse aboard the Falcon. The ship, already falling apart had sustained damage during it's tenure aboard the Steadfast. They had been unable to communicate either with Poe or the Resistance and alarms were going off every few minutes.

Maybe this was Ren's plan all along. Damage the ship so they'd die in space. Rey would never know..... Finn thought to himself.

Rey. How could they have left her there? Maybe he deserved this fate, a fitting end for someone guilty of deserting a friend.

Just as he had consigned himself to a horrible death in the depths of space, the com on his wrist beeped. FINALLY. He pulled up the message from Poe, a set of coordinates. Poe.was.a.fucking.genius. Voice and holos were too large to send but a few simple lines of text were able to make it.

"Chewy, get us to here!" He shouted as punched the coordinates into the navigation system.

Poe leaned up against the side of the Bestoon Legacy. Damn, he hated that name. It'd be rechristened back at base. He hoped his message had made it to Finn. He knew this small, desolate moon from his days as a spice runner when it had been used as a drop point. The atmosphere, while breathable, was thin, making standing outside for long periods of time without life support dangerous. That was why he and Zorii had chosen it.

He sighed thinking back to those days. Seeing Zorii had been a shock to his system and brought back a flood of memories. At the time, he had never thought his turbulent days as a smuggler would seem simple. Oh, how wrong he had been.

He didn't know how long to wait given that Finn and Chewy might not have even received his transmission. Maybe he could leave them a message to head back to base? Patience was not his strength, despite Leia's attempts to drill it into him.

His thoughts drifted back to Rey. Was she ok? Had they done the right thing leaving her? He thought about Ren's cocky remark as they were hauled off in cuffs. We'll see. Yeah, they would and Poe was personally going to see to it that Ren paid dearly for this. If he touched Rey....

A familiar whirring noise sounded above him as the Falcon almost crashed into him, leaving a deep gash in the ground. The ship tilted to the side. Oooh, Rey was not going to like this, reliving their argument just that morning over Poe's mistreatment of her ship.

Finn and Chewy emerged from the tilted ramp, bickering about something. Poe managed to catch that only two of the landing legs were functional but the rest was drowned out by Chewy's angry roars. Poe was relieved to see that 3PO had stayed on board. In his current state of mind, Poe wasn't sure he could resist using him as target practice. The already insufferable droid had been rendered even more annoying by the memory wipe.

"Hey!" Poe shouted over them to get their attention. BB8 made a sound like a siren. Finn and Chewy both quieted, though it was clear they were each still annoyed with the other. "You want to fill me in?"

Finn recited a list of the damages the Falcon had sustained - with Chewy occasionally adding in details- and they weren't completely sure it was safe to fly at the moment. "And to top it off, we have no spare parts and our master mechanic is currently being held hostage by a mass murdering psychopath!" Finn shouted the last part as Chewy roared in agreement.

Poe took it all in, broken part by broken part. "I would agree it's not flight worthy, at least not for such a long haul back to Ajan Kloss. This rust bucket isn't much better but I think it will make it. As much as I don't want to, I think it's best we leave the Falcon here. We can send a small crew back to retrieve it after we get back to base."

Finn looked at him with the beaten expression Poe had come to know so well. He'd seen it on every Resistance member's face at some point, including in the mirror. It was the expression Leia had worn at the Battle of Crait before Skywalker and Rey saved the remaining freedom fighters. "Poe, we can't leave it. We can't leave her."

"Finn, we can't go back. Rey told us to leave. And even if we did go back, what the hell would we even do? She's with Kylo-fucking-Ren, who we have no chance of getting past. We already failed spectacularly at one rescue mission today." Poe spit bitterly. "Rey negotiated a ceasefire with Ren until the Emperor is dealt with. The General needs to know that, now."

Finn angered at his words, "She's not herself right now. She's not thinking clearly. But that doesn't matter to you, all you care about is the mission. You don't care about Rey!" Finn screamed in Poe's face!

Poe's own temper roared at this accusation, "You think I don't care about her? I fucking love her." His anger faded as fast as it appeared, his expression something akin to grief. He wished he had told her, wished he had kissed her in the holding cell.

Finn stepped back at Poe's admission. He had suspected Poe had more than just friendly feelings for Rey, but to hear him say it aloud was still a shock. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. You never told me."

"Don't take it personally, Finn. I never told her either."

It was Chewy who broke the long silence. "Rey is strong. She asked us to trust her, they have the same goal. He won't hurt her, at least for now."

Poe absorbed Chewy's words, well growls. "You're right Chewy. Palpatine is a threat to the First Order, to Ren's rule. He can't get rid of him alone or else he would have done it by now. He needs Rey's help. And Rey wants to depose the Emperor because he's pure evil."

"And Kylo Ren isn't?" Finn interrupted.

"Good point. Rey is... Finn you doing ok?"

Finn was white as a sheet. "Maker, Rose is going to kill me."

Poe couldn't help but chuckle, "Maybe you should stay and fix the Falcon after all. If Rose doesn't kill you, Rey will if she sees her ship like that."

Poe's tone once again grew serious. "Rey is a Jedi, Finn. The last Jedi. Her destiny is to battle the Dark Side. We're not Force sensitive. There are things we will never be able to understand, like that dyad bond thing she was talking about." Poe balled his fists at the thought of Rey being connected to that monster in any form. "All we can do is put our faith in her, in the Jedi, in the Force."

Finn nodded in agreement. "Besides, we all know Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is no match for Rey. Leia told me Rey may very well be the most powerful Jedi in hundreds of generations."

"Let's not forget, last time the First Order captured Rey she escaped in less than hour AND gave Ren that nasty scar on his face. It's been, what three hours? She's probably stolen a TIE fighter and is halfway back to base by now."

"Well, we better meet her there."