"So he's all good, right? No more clunky bacta suit?"

Kalonia nodded her head, her focus not completely dedicated to Mara's concerned expression as the med wing brimmed with a chaotic energy, carts of supplies being rolled through the single door they happened to stand right next to and the chatter of nurses diagnosing those wounded from the battle. The doctor's gaze briefly averted to the bleeding Hybolon behind the woman, but hastily confirmed, "If he's walking, then he shouldn't need the suit anymore. Any damage done to his spine should be healed. I'm so sorry, but if you could excuse me-"

"Yeah, yeah." Mara moved out of Harter's way and she bolted to her next patient. The blonde backed away as another doctor ushered her to the side and rolled a cot past her, back touching against the wall as she surveyed the crowded room. She sighted Poe at the side an injured pilot, whom he gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder before his eyes searched for Estoni. When he looked her way, she bobbed her head towards the door and stepped past two frenzied mechanics out into the hall.

Dameron joined her in the corridor a moment later, repaired jacket in hand, "How's he doing?"

"Doc says he's all good to go." She relayed as the two headed back towards the room she'd guided Finn too for a fresh change of clothes. The commander had left the pair to check up on his pilots after the mission as per standard procedure while Mara recounted the last days' events to her very confused friend, "Still disoriented. I don't know if he remembers anything we said to him while he was out."

"He knows Rey-"

"Is with Skywalker." It was the first question she answered when Finn kept searching the ship for her, "I tried to give a rundown on what's happened since Starkiller to get him up to speed."

"That's good, that's good." Poe hurriedly repeated, nearly missing the correct door if she hadn't reached out to pull him back. He spun towards her and let out a tense breath of a chuckle at the mistake.

Mara knew how pilots looked after tough runs. She didn't want to dwell on the knot in her own gut or the growing migraine, but one look at him and she knew she wasn't the only one who's head hadn't left the fight. Creased forehead. Two fingers tapping the side of his leg. Leftover adrenaline. Dameron only met her prying eyes once, then darted to look at the locking mechanism that had suddenly become interesting.

"How's the squadron looking?" The honest question grounded him back into a conversation and Mara had been too preoccupied by Finn's sudden awakening to even glance at what remained of their fighter pilots.

Poe let out a strained exhale, "A little less good."

The hanger being short-shipped was an indication of that enough. Now Mara had time to collect herself, remember the flashes of what actually happened while she was in the cockpit, and know that the Resistance's plan of attack had cost them every available bomber. She was still shaken, but her concerns wouldn't die in her throat.

Indignance burned at the back of her mouth with a familiar thought, one that belonged to the mind of a First Order strategist from years ago, resurfacing; the Resistance always relied too heavily on the aggressive offense of the few. It was the natural bi-product of an entire organization living by the skin of their teeth without a surplus of recruits to remedy their losses. It was also why their strategists knew when to pull back on their attacks.

That didn't happen today.

Finn hadn't yet made an appearance while they waited, giving Mara the opportunity to gesture in Dameron's direction, "Okay, I don't know if this question is appropriate to ask my commander, or any superior officer-"

"Is that gonna stop you from saying it?" Poe's rhetorical question slightly hindered the momentum of Estoni's speech and caused her to let out a small sigh. She rephrased it.

"But as a co-strategy-person, as a friend. Can I ask this as a friend?"

Out of habit, the man's hands went to his hips while his jaw locked. He averted his eyes down to the floor for a split second, perhaps already knowing what words came next. It was the detriment of having an equal, "Go ahead."

"How was that a plan?" Mara motioned out to the crowded corridor they stood in to reference back to the fight the cruiser swiftly sped away from, "You knew their defense tacts, you had to know going in that the bombers were too easy of targets.. how did the General authorize that?"

Dameron exasperatedly lifted his shoulders, tone becoming sharper, "Funny you say that."

"What?" The blonde's head snapped back. Okay, so he disobeyed Organa's orders in some shape or form. That alone was a surprise since his reverence for the Rebel legend bordered on worship at times. She was well aware the coming exchange might add insult to injury, but didn't halt her quick tongue, "I can't believe you'd-"

Poe's features rearranged as he became aggravated, stance shifting to go on the defensive, "Since when do you care about authorization?"

"Since you pulled that stunt!" Mara was rubbing salt into a raw wound. She could clearly see that in how harshly he recoiled at the accusation. It even pained her - they hadn't spoken in this manner since the miscommunication about Hexagon 47 - yet she wasn't picking a fight just to do so.

Here's what the deal was: Poe was a genuinely nice guy and Mara didn't like hurting nice people. Especially ones that had saved her life a time or two.

Here's the other deal: Mara's pride rarely allowed for her better judgement to soften the blow of whatever argument she made. Especially when she's convinced she's right.

Even before she knew Poe as the man who'd given her a second chance on Ratakka, she knew the nameless pilot of a black X-wing who was always on her tail during engagements. Mara knew him as an enemy and she knew how her enemy fought. It didn't look like miscalculated mad dashes with heavy casualties.

"That thing, the Dreadnought, has enough capability to take this entire fleet out." The frustration Dameron felt was palpable when he jabbed a finger back at her, "Wipe us out. Boom, done, nothing left. Now that threat's off the table. What I did, what those pilots did, was what needed to be done to make sure we all don't end up like the Hosnian system."

Ah, there it was. The Hosnian system. Starkiller base's first and last casualty hung over the Raddus's crew like a condemning spirit. All those who swore something like the destruction of Alderaan would never happen again were tragically wrong. In an instant the Resistance had never anticipated, five planets had been reduced to the field of debris that served as the only testament civilization had ever been there at all. A Dreadnought had a fraction of that capability, but could still do serious damage.

That scared Poe. That fear blazed at the back of his eyes despite his antagonized demeanor and it was making him more impulsive. It was the same dread Mara had noticed in Callisto.

"Yes, really glad that's out of the picture, but that doesn't mean you chuck a coherent plan of attack out the air lock!"

The hallway still bustled with personnel fresh off of the urgency of combat and the padding of heavy boots rushing from one end of the cruiser to another. The tense atmosphere caused Dameron's voice to raise.

"What, would you have done it differently?" He challenged. The commander wouldn't admit it now, but the unruly defector in front of him had proven to be his match when it came to crafting aerial attack patterns; perhaps better. The last few days they'd spent together plotting out a new defense system for a base was enough evidence.

Mara's head began to drum again, "That's not what this is about-"

"Then why'd you ask? Why are we doing this?" Poe's mouth tightened to grit his teeth. It was another beat that the two locked eyes, waiting for the other to spit back another biting remark. Another moment for his tone to become despondent when he spoke again, "You think I don't know the cost of when people don't come back home? You think I don't know that's on me?"

Guilt lanced through the woman with a cutting edge. She took a cautious breath, but didn't back down, "I know you do, which is why I don't get it."

The brunt of the statement brought them to a standstill. Dameron pressed his lips into a fine line and whatever intensity that carried him through the argument dissolved. His head hung low as a long exhale allowed the rigidness of his posture to diminish, revealing how tired he really was. When he could face Mara's searching expression again, a bitter admittance slipped out, "I thought it'd go different."

Something ached in Estoni's chest like an explosion. It felt too similar to the hurt that gutted her when she watched her pilots fall from the sky, "Look, I didn't mean to-"

"You're not the one I have to justify this too."

The locking mechanism disengaged and the door slid open to reveal Finn, who was now fully clothed with his wits about him. The two pilots instantly backed away from each other. The dispute was abandoned to send reassuring smiles towards their friend. The facade was shoddy at best.

"Buddy, you look good!" Poe managed to liven his spirits enough to compliment his friend.

With a waning burst of enthusiasm, Mara uttered, "Hey, doc says you're all good to go! How ya feeling?"

The former stormtrooper didn't immediately respond to their sudden uptake in energy. His eyes darted between the pair, then jumped to the commotion of the crew in the hallway, "What's going on?"

Another passing look was traded between them before Poe interjected, "Evacuation procedures. C'mon, I gotta see the general on the bridge."

Though still wearing a bewildered expression, Finn expectantly followed his lead. Mara's pace picked up to stay at the men's sides, "Okay, what are you still lost on?"

They turned an oncoming corner as Finn repeated what she had told him earlier to clarify, "So you blew up Starkiller base?"

"Yep." Dameron confirmed without hesitation.

"Rey beat Kylo?"

The blonde perked up proudly, "Yeah she did."

"And the Resistance got the map. We won, right?" He suddenly stopped mid-stride, anchoring the conversation amongst the busy environment, "Why doesn't this feel like winning?'

One officer in an olive uniform pressed past the trio, not bothering to stop talking to her colleague while she rushed through their exchange. Dameron quickly articulated his point, "We came out of hiding to attack Starkiller. It didn't take long for this First Order to find us. Now, we gotta re-group and go back at 'em."

"Wait, wait so the base on D-Qar?" Finn's unfinished question hung in the air while another Intelligence personnel stepped around them, causing Mara to edge closer.

"That's compromised. We're just jumped to hyperspace and are heading to..." Her mouth stayed agape for a second, turning her head back to direct her admittance at the commander, "I actually have no idea where we're going."

"A different base." He vaguely informed, which didn't actually answer any of their concerns. She resisted rolling her eyes.

The younger man's focus wasn't on that topic. Instead, he put both his hand up in a gesture that translated to something akin to 'slow down', "Woah, look, I believe in what you guys are doing here, but I didn't join this army. I don't want you to think I'm something I'm not-"

"Hey, hey, it's fine." Poe put a reassuring hand on his friend's forearm, taking Finn's apprehension to be leftover anxiety from the abrupt awakening, "You're alright. You're with us, with me and Mara. Where you belong."

Dameron pushed the repaired jacket to his chest. Finn took the garment in his hands, searching for the long tear down the back that paralleled his own wound. The leather had been mended back together with disordered lines of thread zig-zagging up and down the torn seam. The first few stitches were tighter together and sporadic in length, the work of Mara's hand, with the rest being more evenly spaced out, yet just as atrocious after Poe took over the project.

"It's your jacket." The pilot explained, his words adopting a faster pace as he realized how late he would be to meet Leia, "I know I'm not much of a sewer..."

The first few signs of a genuine smile showed on Finn's face as he marveled at the gift. It was the only thing he owned that wasn't First Order issued.

"...but I did try." The main bridge which served as the mobile command center was within sight at the end of the hall. Dameron was already taking steps in that direction, sending once last glance to his friend before moving away, "Now I gotta go. 'Make sure what my pilots did today was worth something."

The poorly-concealed bitterness that followed at the end of his sentence was clearly aimed Mara's way. She bit the inside of her cheek as he turned away from them and sped up to a jog to reach the bridge.

Estoni's eyes lingered on Poe for a touch longer than she meant to. The inside of her skull still drummed out the tune of her thoughts: she may have earned the brush-off. Maybe she could even confess that her timing to bring up a tough subject was off. Or the fact that her own agitated state hadn't improved anything.

It still stung. Apologies would come later.

For now, the blonde tipped her chin back and pointed to the jacket in her friend's hands, "Okay for the record, I did like six of those stitches, so he can't get all the credit."

Finn's focus wasn't on the jacket anymore. The man hadn't failed to sense the thick tension and blatantly asked, "What's up with him?"

They were still standing right in the center of the corridor disrupting the current of workers trying to move past the physical barrier they'd created. Mara ushered him to the next corner, "Hey, let's get out of the way real quick."

"Did something happen after Starkiller that I just missed?" He let her guide him by the hand to a less hectic part of the space, still full of inquiries, "I mean besides missing everything. I thought you guys were....friends."

The lower noise level allowed Mara to hear her own thoughts over a mounting headache. The woman sighed, one hand going up to the side of her temple, "No, no, it's been fine. We got out of the 'hey it's super great you're not dead' phase to actually working together, but..."

A natural pause filled the air when she let another moment pass to remember all that had been said in the last five minutes, "We just came back from a tough run. And then disagreed about some stuff and I don't know. I don't know what that was. I just know that the mission was kind of a shitshow."

Finn chalked it up to all the things he'd heard about hot-blooded pilots and their temperaments, but wisely opted not to say anything on that matter. He still was working to understand everything, "So you're a Resistance fighter now? I thought you hated the jumpsuits."

"These things?" Mara tugged at the bright fabric hanging around her hips. She'd unzipped it the first chance she'd gotten in favor of sporting the grey tank top underneath the uniform, "Yeah, still kinda do. They mostly got me working stats and odd jobs. Today's the first time I've flown for the squadron."

A lump settled in her throat as she thought back to how much she had yearned to see aerial combat since she'd officially joined the Resistance. All the times Poe had allowed her to test out Black One and the chance Organa had given her to practice maneuvers with Red Squadron only fueled that eagerness. All it took to snuff out the excitement was those few minutes she'd been in a cockpit.

Now, the thought of climbing back in an X-wing made her want to puke. Like really bad.

Do not puke on Finn. Do not.

So Mara didn't, instead off-handedly commenting, "I got no other place in this galaxy to be. Might as well fly for them until Rey comes back."

At the mention of his friend's name, Finn's eyes lit up with a distinct glow only reserved for the scavenger, "When is she coming back-"

"ESTONI!" A holler cut through the white noise of commotion without warning.

The blonde whipped back to look at who had called out her name. In the middle of the corridor stood Nomen, face smeared with fresh oil and grim, who proudly brandished a disembodied astromech droid head. The metal plating that held its primary processing units together was tinged copper from rust, cluing into the fact that the part was ancient. The lens of its primary radar eye had a crack running straight through the center. But it was in tact.

"You're a luckier than a moon jockey on payday. Found this thing in a pile of parts. It's the right model for replacement and everything." The Togruta wrapped her arms around the spherical piece of scrap metal, holding it close to her chest as she approached.

Mara couldn't help but let her lips spread to a grin when her roommate jutted the robotic head towards her. It seemed repairing the decapitated R-4 might not be the challenge previously thought. Nomen had found the correct part within an hour since the fighters had docked. The mechanic must have gone out of her way to find a replacement for the newly assigned astromech.

Until today, Mara wasn't sure Nomen even liked her. The strange act of kindness caught her off guard, "Oh, oh you did. Um, thank you, I guess."

The Togruta might've responded accordingly and poked fun at the supposedly ace recruit if she hadn't begun to stare. Her eyes widened incredulously and she took a fast step away to create proximity, not breaking eye contact. That wasn't a reaction to her roommate's startled demeanor. She was staring at Finn.

"You're him."

The man was caught off guard and stayed warily still as this stranger regarded him with a sudden awe. He was clumsy with his words, the pitch of his voice shooting up, "Uh-him? I'm sorry, I don't understand. I mean, I am a him, but not a specific him-"

"You're Finn! Hero of Starkiller Finn!" Nomen piped up, still captured by a sudden astonishment at his presence. She gripped the astromech part in her arms a little tighter and the more brazen, irritable attitude melted to bashfulness, "Didn't you, like, save our flight commander and then fight Kylo Ren? With Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and all?"

Mara couldn't believe what she was witnessing. Was the mechanic star struck?

Finn had no idea how to respond, "I guess....I guess I did.

With Nomen still intently staring directly at him, he sent over a worried look as a cry for help to Estoni. She sensed his discomfort with the undivided attention and cleared her throat, confidently crossing her arms over her chest, "Aye, Nome, technically I also fought Kylo Ren with the same lightsaber. Don't I deserve some credit?"

Blood rushed to the Togruta's cheeks and she hid her embarrassment by jutting her chin out to send back a quick remark, "Hey, when you willingly defect from the First Order, we'll talk."

The way Mara's mouth contorted was shockingly similar to an expression that someone trying to hold back spewing out water after just taking a drink would make. Except she hadn't drank any water and was still trying not to puke.

One glance at Finn confirmed he looked exactly the same.

Luckily, Nomen hadn't caught onto the two's non-verbal panic and was busy trying to maintain a cool composure. Her fingers scratched at the rust caked onto the scrap metal in her grasp and took another minute to voice her thought, "But yeah, it's good you're awake."

"Glad to be awake." His head shot back to face her, trying to put on a smile that lacked any real convincing factors.

No one was enjoying the conversation, so the mechanic gulped and backed farther into the hallway, "Well, I'm gonna go to the hanger and start repairing the mess you made, Estoni."

Mara offered a half-hearted thumbs-up, still reeling from the defector-First Order comment that had come from nowhere, "Yeah, thanks for that."

"Good to meet you!" Finn gave one final attempt at socializing with the awe-struck stranger while she disappeared behind the next corner in a scurry. The awkwardness of the interaction lingered  for a few seconds longer while he nervously chuckled, going to rub the back of his head, "That's your roommate Nomen? Grumpy Nomen?"

Mara was still too engrossed in slowing her heart rate down to question how he had easily guessed the Togruta's identity, "The very same one."

His forehead wrinkled in another brief flash of confusion, a state of mind he'd been living in since leaving the hospital room, "The one that hates Ilvi's music?"

"Yes." The blonde confirmed again, this time with a curious tone. Her eyebrows furrowed together at the mention of her other roommate that worked in Intelligence, "How do you know that?"

"I have no idea."

The answer dawned on her relatively quickly. In another burst of energy, she excitedly realized that all the sleep she'd sacrificed for the guy hadn't been in vain, "You remember!"

Finn still didn't follow her train of thought. Mara didn't mind, nudging his arm as she explained, "While you were out, me and Dameron would visit you in the med wing and just talk to you, I guess. I took the morning shift since he had early patrols and he came by while I took his X-wing for a spin. I didn't know if you'd remember anything we told you while you were out, but you just did! And it was about one of my stupid stories!"

Some type of emotion passed over Finn like a baptizing wave. Something he would start to call gratitude gushed past it limits when he glanced down at the jacket in his hands again. Looking back up at his friend's toothy grin, he couldn't help but ask, "You did that? For me?"

"Of course, we didn't want you to get lonely." Mara didn't register the monumental epiphany that he was having, instead reveling in the newfound fact she'd won a trivial competition, "Oh man, Poe's going to be so jealous when I tell him you remembered what I said first. And about Ilvi and Nomen! Ha!"

In exhilaration, she extended out a closed hand for a celebratory first bump. Finn, wonderful and bewildered, didn't immediately understand what the gesture meant. The blonde held out her hand between them for another beat before realizing that he wasn't completely tracking. She splayed out her fingers to mimic an explosion, her lips forming around a silent 'booosh'.

"Oh, like a handshake thing!" The defector grasped what Mara had intended the motion to be.

"Yeah, exactly." She affirmed with a nod, "It's a fist-bump people do."

He clenched his own hand to imitate the action she had just shown, "Sorry, they don't really go over that in extensive battle training."

Mara's chest ached at the casual mention of his indoctrination into the stormtrooper program. It was a topic her mind had drifted to often in the waking hours of the morning when the D'Qar base was still under the lull of sleep and the only noise was the gentle humming of machines fighting to keep her friend alive. Thick guilt dressed her every day since the battle of Starkiller; the sharp cry of pain was the very last sound she'd heard from Finn before he dropped motionless to the snow. She should've engaged Ren sooner, should've done anything sooner and maybe there wouldn't be a long scar sewn into his skin. It was a horrifying reward to commemorate his escape from the Order.

Yet here the man was, animated with new life in front of her. That rampant guilt felt distant now as she gestured again, "Good thing this takes two seconds to learn."

Mara gestured again and both of their fists tapped together. Finn let his fingers splay out as hers had, cautiously looking back up to question, "Boom?"

She replicated the same motion with a smirk, "Boom."

The two traitors shared a jovial moment amongst the chaos of war as they practiced the greeting a few more times with glee. They concluded the lesson with a high-five whilst the blonde let her other hand go to the bent Alderaanian coin that rested on her collar bone. Rey. The blonde had given her word to the newly discovered Jedi that she'd give the Millennium Falcon a call as soon as Finn had woken up.

With that promise in mind, she started back towards the bridge and ushered him forward, "C'mon, there's gonna be more people happy to know that you're up walking and talking."

yes this is a lil rough but i'm getting back into writing fiction over academic essays and the transition's really something!!

okay okay YES i know a lot of y'all have been quarantined (pls stay safe babes and stay inside!!) and you're like , "hey, you have extra time now, right author 👀"

i abSOLUTELY DO and the last few weeks have been working on getting an outline together for this story! it's format will be a lil different than warrior, as i've mentioned before, but were still gonna get some flashbacks to different parts of mar's life, but they'll be peppered throughout the main story.

i'll also branch out more in writing other people's perspectives! it's still gonna be told in 3rd person, but may not immediately follow mara.

hey the explanation scene was based on some deleted tlj footage i found! so that's where a lot of poe and finn's dialogue comes from. there'll be other deleted scenes i'll include as the book goes on because SOME DELETED FOOTAGE should've replaced some stuff in tlj and i'm bitter

so deleted footage/my own tweaks to the plot! hopefully more frequent updates! fourth wall breaks! romance! friendship! drama! mara yelling at more people she shouldn't! let's goooo