Things have been winding down for the moment, but only for certain members of the Black Squadron. Their leader, however, is a different story. 

Poe has been taking all of his pent up frustration in the training room of the Resistance's secret headquarters. A week or so has passed since the last mission and Leia has him, Elara, and Threepio constantly checking in with her on their progress on finding the spy among their ranks. The General doesn't want to take any chances before Black Squadron could possibly have to fly out on another mission. She would prefer to find the spy first before they give away anymore classified information to the First Order, but finding the traitor appeared to be harder and much more draining than Poe originally thought.

"Grah!" Poe rounds a kick on the training equipment, his hands and feet properly bandaged with sweat dripping down the back and front of his tank top. He growls at the offending equipment while taking another swing at the pad with his fist. He lands another right hook while BB-8 chirps at him from the sidelines, "Oh, I seem frustrated, Beebee-Ate? I wonder why that could be."

He throws a punch with his left arm this time as he rants out loud to his droid, "Terex. He's got a source inside Black Squadron, probably. And that, my friend, ain't good. I've been going through mission data files, looking for anything that sticks out from our time on Ovanis and Megalox Beta. I'm looking at everyone."

He pretends to block an attack while pushing against a bag that springs out to hit him, easily defending his face while listing off the members of his team, "I hate it. I've known L'ulo since I was a kid. Even thinking he might have betrayed us makes me want to throw up. Karé and I flew together in the Republic Navy. General Organa recruited us to the Resistance at the same time. I know she's loyal. But then I think about things... like how did she know how to get to Grakkus' palace on Megalox Beta? She led us right to it."

He lifts his leg to block another attack from the moving padded machinery with his shin, bleeding out his frustrations to both the training machines and BB-8 as the droid listens quietly, "These people are my friends. My family. And now Terex has me thinking about them like criminals. If one of them is a traitor, it means they've been lying to my face. Pretending they're worried. Pretending they care. Pretending they don't know the truth. So now I'm second-guessing everything all of them have done since we formed the squadron."

He right-hooks an upcoming punching bag squarely in the center with a little less force than usual, "Were they really trying to help, or was it all part of some plan? Just another lie? I can't trust my own squadron," Poe slouches to the floor while staring at the ground, his droid rolling over to offer him a wet rag with one of his retracting arms, "Makes me sad. Makes me angry. And you know what? It's all Terex's fault."

"Your form is weak."

Poe flips around to find Elara Skywalker leaning against the doorway, a small datapad tucked into her crossed arms in front of her. He couldn't tell if she looked amused or disappointed, the expressions she makes were sometimes never clear and he wasn't sure if that was a Jedi thing or an Elara thing. He glares up at her all the same, "Excuse me?"

"Your form. It's weak," she pushes herself off the wall and steps onto the training mat, "I've never seen you in combat, but if I had, I'd probably let the First Order kill you for insulting the Resistance with that stance."

His eyes narrow further while he stands up, holding the rag BB-8 had given him to his sweaty neck, "And I'm assuming because you're a Jedi that you might know a thing or two about perfect stance?"

She shrugs as she toes off her shoes and sets down her datapad, "Perfect everything, actually."

"Fantastic," Poe groans while a vein pops out of his neck with annoyance, "Anything else you want to say that will irritate me?"

"That's actually the point, Dameron," the grin she flashes him is wolf-like and intimidating, "I'm teaching you a lesson."

"Which is what?" He snaps, and the moment he does, he's sent flying to the ground with no warning whatsoever. Too stunned to get up, he keeps his back on the floor while watching Elara stand back up straight after having kicked him in the chest, her grin still unwavering.

"Don't get angry. If you are blinded with rage, betrayal, and confusion, you won't be able to see the big picture," she brushes herself off even when there was nothing there, the cocky little minx, "Jedis were once trained to block out and forbid ourselves of these emotions, but since my father had tried to raise the Jedi back up from scratch, we're allowed to make up our own rules as we go along. But the standard ones still apply. Do not feel anger, or it will take control of you. If you calm down, maybe you can think straight for once and finally figure out who in the Black Squadron has betrayed you."

She reaches down to him with an offered hand and softer smile. Silently, with a grim expression, Poe accepts her hand and lets her pull him back up to his feet, to which now he stood tall over her, but somehow she stood in a way that made him feel small.

"I know they're your family and you would prefer not to think about any of them as traitors. And I understand completely," a dark cloud forms in her eyes, a storm brewing that she thought she could easily hide with a stoic face, but Poe caught it right away, "Betrayal amongst family is the worst kind of heartbreak."

When he doesn't appear to be looking away from her eyes, Elara blinks and turns, walking off the training mat while waving over her shoulder, "I think Threepio was looking for you. Don't keep him waiting."

~~~~~~~~~

The thing about C-3PO is that he's not easily offended whenever someone keeps him waiting, mainly because he's not entirely aware people are supposed to feel offended from that. He doesn't always understand human behavior despite all the years he's been around them. When Poe eventually found him, Threepio had his own mission assigned to him by Leia after they received word from one of his operatives. They said they had information on the whereabouts of Supreme Leader Snoke and Threepio had been ordered to fetch them. The General suggested that Poe Dameron should be the pilot to transport the droid to and from along with one other member of Black Squadron. Poe was hesitant with the idea at first, given that all of his team members are suspects in an investigation, but eventually, he settled on having the team's mechanic, Oddy Muva, tag along for the mission instead. And so off they went. They fly to Kaddak, located in the Outer Rim in search of C-3PO's droid, N1-ZX. They keep a low profile for the most part and eventually find their long lost droid... that is until they realized that Terex was also in Kaddak and had put a bounty on Poe's head. Oddy got lost in the fight back to their ship, but Poe was pretty convinced that the mechanic was much safer away from him at the moment. The others take Poe's X-Wing hidden in the old ship Leia had gifted them and took off, leaving the older one for Oddy.

The second Poe went into lightspeed, something felt wrong deep in his gut. He couldn't explain it, but something didn't add up with this whole situation. As the ship drifts in hyperspace on the way back to D'Qar, Poe has time to think about recent events, and thinks out loud, "Huh."

"May I be of assistance, sir?" C-3PO asks from his pod attached to the side of the X-Wing.

"No, Threepio... well, maybe. I'm just trying to figure all this out. Maybe you and Beebee can help me talk it through."

"Boop-be bleeet!"

"Thanks, pal," and so Poe voices his thoughts out loud, "Terex has been one step ahead of us ever since we started looking for Lor San Tekka. He somehow got a tracker onto my X-Wing and follows us to Ovanis. Fine, okay-- lots of people have access to the hangar. Could have been anyone in the Resistance, really."

"Bloop. Bloop."

The pilot smiles to himself, "Don't worry, buddy. I know it wasn't you. Then, he was waiting for us on Megalox Beta-- but the only people who knew we were going there were Black Squadron, Commander Skywalker, and General Organa."

"Let me assure you, sir-- I have known both the General and Commander Skywalker their whole lives. I was even there the day the Commander was born. They are not traitors."

"Didn't say they were, Threepio. It's not the General... It's not Skywalker. Which means it's someone in the squadron. Snap, Karé, or Jess. Or me, I guess. But it ain't me. I just don't get it. I've known most of them for years. Fought with them. We've saved each other's lives. It just doesn't make any sense."

"So what does make sense, sir?" Threepio pitches in.

"'If you are blinded with rage, betrayal, and confusion, you won't be able to see the big picture'," Poe leans back in his seat, "Commander Skywalker told me to not feel anger, or it will take control of me. If I calm down, maybe I can think straight for once and finally figure out who in the Black Squadron has betrayed me. That's what makes sense. But here's what I really don't get. How did Terex know we'd be on Kaddak? We purposely kept this one close. It was just Leia, me, Elara, and you two droids. No one else even..." Poe's eyes widen as it hit him, "Oh, man. It's Oddy Muva."

~~~~~~~~~

Elara froze in her spot while walking towards the war room to inform the General that C-3PO has not been annually checking in with her as to how the mission was going. The moment she stopped, a technician running past her accidentally bumped her shoulder when she paused right in front of them. They stop for a moment to apologize but then continued their jog to the hangar.

But she barely noticed them. Something felt wrong in the Force that made her chest squeeze uncomfortably. Staring off into space, she tried zoning in on that unnatural energy, trying to spot the issue behind the disturbance. What was wrong with this picture?

~~~~~~~~~

"The more I think about it, the more this whole thing just seems messed up," Poe grips the controls and flips a switch, and suddenly the galaxy speeding past his window in bright white lights slows to a halt, "I'm pulling out of hyperspace. I can't risk bringing Nunzix back to D'Qar until we know what's going on."

Threepio hums, "Seems very wise, sir. I do apologize for any inconvenience-- N1-ZX is my operative, after all."

"Is he, Threepio? That's my biggest question right now. Wake him up."

"Certainly, sir. If you'll just give me a moment, I'll send the activation codes. And... There. Unit N1-ZX is back online."

"And what, exactly, is this supposed to be?" The surprisingly sarcastic and nagging droid exclaims once he wakes up, "I thought I was pretty clear when I explained this whole deal to you. Even dumbed it down a little for that blobby thing between your ears you call a processing unit. You get none of my data until I'm safe and sound back at Resistance HQ."

Poe grits his teeth, "Yeah, I heard you the first time. But now let me be clear. I don't think you have any secret First Order data. I think this whole thing was one of Terex's tricks. Don't know how he pulled it off, don't know how he fooled Threepio, but that's what I think."

The X-Wing has never been so quiet before as the annoying droid is suddenly silenced, up until the moment he looks out the window and feels sly, "Yeah? What makes you say that?"

Poe looks over his shoulder and feels his heart drop at the sight of an entire armada of bounty hunter ships fall out of lightspeed and stop just behind his X-Wing, along with Terex's ship leading the fleet. 

"Blast! I knew it. Calculate a new set of jump coordinates, Beebee-Ate! And tell me where we are! Any help nearby?"

BB-8 beeps a reply with panic evident behind it, causing Poe to deadpan, "Great. Guess we're on our own. Ah, man. This is ugly. Beebee-Ate, get a message to the Resistance--"

"If I may, sir," C-3PO pitches in, "I'll send the distress signal. My activation codes will be sent straight to General Organa much faster than BB-8's through carried radios."

"Then do it! At least they'll know what happened to us."

"If you get me scrapped, human, I swear I'll--"

"Shut up, Nunzix!"

The X-Wing begins to spin to avoid firepower as the armada starts to fire at them. Poe tries to take evasive maneuvers as the entire ship starts to rattle. Threepio shouts in distress after he sends his codes, "My goodness! This is terrible!"

"Can't outrun them. I'll try to get in there, maybe make them take each other out. Try to keep flying until we can get a hyperspace jump calculated."

"Sir, with the number of enemies we're facing, I'm not sure that tactic will--"

"Shut up, Threepio!"

~~~~~~~~~

Elara didn't have time to meditate and figure out why the Force was telling her something was wrong as the answer was held all within her datapad. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a ding coming from the pad and upon looking down, Elara's eyebrows furrowed in confusion to see a set of familiar activation codes.

"Threepio?" She questioned out loud before tapping the datapad and opening the decoded message, which she was able to decipher within seconds after learning how-to from the droid himself when she was a child. She at first was confused by the message as it didn't explain to her why Threepio was late on checking in. Instead, it spoke of a distress signal, a cry for help, "Oh no..."

Elara found herself breaking into a run, losing breath quickly as her heart pounded in her ears. She finally reached the war room and called out, "General!"

Leia spun around, eyebrows furrowing at the state of her niece out of breath and panicking behind her eyes. The young woman chokes on air for a moment before looking up at her aunt, "The Force..."

"I felt it. I know."

Elara nods, gasping for breath while holding up her datapad, "It's Threepio. He sent a distress signal. Dameron and the droids are in trouble."

Leia's gaze hardened, "Where."

"He sent coordinates. It's open space in the middle of nowhere. They're being chased by a fleet of criminals run by Terex. They have nowhere to go."

"Run those coordinates and send a search party--"

"Forget it," Leia's eyes widened by the drop in Elara's voice once the young Skywalker fully caught her breath and straightened her posture, "I'll lead Black Squadron out there."

"You?" The General's voice was equally terrifying as it starts to sound like a doting mother, "Commander, you and I both know that if you step off this planet and the First Order find out you're alive--"

"I'll take my chances. Don't wait up for me," the young Jedi turns and races out of the room without a second glance.

"Elara!"

She ignores her aunt's calls as she runs to the hangar, more determined and more in control of her breathing once she runs up to Jessika's ship, who in turn was currently being entertained by Snap and Karé bickering while she and L'ulo watched from above, seated on the wing's of their ships. They all stop and turn, however, when Elara approaches them with a fixed glare.

"Dameron's in trouble. This is a rescue mission. Suit up, and wait for me to send you the coordinates."

"You got it," Snap replies without a second thought, the others only nodding and quickly getting to work prepping their engines.

"Snap, you're temporarily promoted to Black Leader," Elara instructs while pulling up her hair to tighten it into a bun, "You got a spare X-Wing?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because unfortunately, I can't just fly using the Force."

~~~~~~~~~

Even though Poe had managed to hit two or three opposing ships, there was still plenty more to take their places and fire back in response. It didn't take long before Poe's X-Wing was shot down and plummeting towards a nearby uncharted planet. Poe had managed to land the ship upright even without using the landing gear, but now he and the droids were stranded and there was an armada hovering above them. They all quickly exit the X-Wing and start running, Threepio being slower than the rest and so Poe had to carry him on his back. They managed to hide in a small ice cave for the time being and travel down deeper in order to avoid the armada once they get there. But by traveling further down into the cave, meant that they were trapped by the time Terex arrives on foot along with his entire crew. 

It didn't take long before Terex got to Threepio, and seeing as the human-cyborg relations has a reputation, Terex was smart enough to know that the droid may be more useful than Poe. Or, at the very least, C-3PO's memory unit was more useful. As his men start to drag Threepio away, Poe was now currently stuck with Nunzix since BB-8 had gone missing, too. They were surrounded and had nowhere to run. Poe was just about ready to start pulling at his beloved hair in frustration when his communicator started to buzz with a familiar voice.

"Black Leader, this is -kkzkt- do you read?"

"Oh..." Poe sighed in relief, "Thank the Maker."

"Repeat. -Kkzzzkxx- Do you read, Black Leader? This is Black Squadron. Don't worry, Poe. We're coming."

Poe grabs the communicator with a wide smile on his face while bringing it to his lips, "That you, Snap? Man, it's good to hear your voice."

"You, too, Poe-- Sorry it took us so long to get here. You okay?"

"For the moment."

"That's exactly what I said!" Nunzix pitches in an annoyed tone.

"Okay-- looks like we might have to fight our way down there-- But we'll do it. Just hold on. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"You got it. Thanks again, Black Two."

"Don't thank me, Black Leader. Thank Commander Skywalker."

Poe's eyes squint in confusion and when another familiar voice sounds over the comms, his stomach involuntarily did a backflip.

"For the record, I always keep my favorite droids close and knew you guys needed help when Threepio didn't check-in," Elara spoke through the comms, her pilot helmet squeezing comfortably on her head as she veered her ship slightly to the right to avoid collision with Jessika.

Poe's smile of fascination is faint and it fades just as fast before delivering the bad news to Elara, "They got him, Skywalker. They got Threepio and are taking him in for interrogation."

"Dissection, you mean," Elara cursed under her breath, gripping the controls in front of her, "Over my dead body. Snap?"

"We got it covered up here, kid," L'ulo speaks from Snap's right.

"Just go bring our boy back," Karé pitches in from Snap's left.

"We'll cover you, Skywalker," Snap finally informs, nodding towards Elara through the windows of their cockpits.

She nods in thanks and breaks formation from the rest of the squadron, flying down towards the planet as quickly as possible. She hears blaster fire behind her but had faith that it was just Black Squadron providing her cover if the armada spotted her heading down towards the planet. 

It didn't take long before she spies Poe's abandoned X-Wing, following the trail up to the mouth of a cave. As she starts getting closer, she squints her eyes to see a couple of men dragging a pile of parts out that shined gold in the sunlight. The grip on her controls stresses the metal as a spitfire of rage starts to bloom in the bottom of her stomach. She preps her guns as she flies closer to the ground, setting the men in her sights.

Outside the cave, a bunch of Terex's boys' were wanting to tear Threepio up for parts until they looked up and noticed an X-Wing speeding their way. They slowly begin to back up and let go of C-3PO, starting to sprint in the opposite direction as the X-Wing begins to fire. 

Elara grits her teeth while growling, "Get.

Your filthy.

Hands.

Off.

My family's.

Droid!!"

The shower of blaster fire riddles the men's bodies as they all fall to the ground just as Elara passes over them. She sighs, leaning back in her seat and loosening her grip on the controls. She tries tapping into a frequency she knows by heart, "Skywalker to See-Threepio, do you copy?" She only hears static in response and her stomach drops, "Threepio? Do you copy? Was that you down there?"

"-kzzzt- es! Yes! That was me! A memory unit or two might be misplaced, but I'm okay! Oh, thank you! Thank you, Mistress Elara!"

Elara laughs out of relief and pulls up high into the atmosphere to rejoin the fight. She notices that Black Squadron is easily outnumbered and by chance she witnesses one of their ships get hit in the wing.

"I'm hit!"

"Karé-- you okay?"

"Still flying, Jess. But barely. If I can just... Oh, no."

"What is it, Black Five? What's the matter?"

"Got three heading right for me, L'ulo, and I can't really steer. This is it. Thank you, Black Squadron. It's been an honor."

Karé closes her eyes and salutes in what she believes to be her last moments before her vessel rattles when the three ships in front of her explode as she flies by. Opening her eyes, Kun looks out her window to find Elara's X-Wing fly through one of the explosions and turns to fly beside the other woman.

"Need a hand, Black Five?" 

"Thank you, Commander Skywalker," Karé leans back in her seat in relief.

"Skywalker! Look out!"

Both Karé and Elara look over their shoulders at Snap's voice to see another handful of Terex's men flying towards the two ships flying side by side. Elara immediately turns her controls when she remembers that Karé can't take evasive maneuvers with a damaged X-Wing and so the Skywalker turns her own ship sideways to block Karé's as best as she could as the enemy prepares to fire.

"Skywalker!"

Elara doesn't dare close her eyes and stares at the enemy ships head-on, waiting for them to blast her out of the sky until they, too, blow up in an impressive show of fire and debris. 

"What was that?" Karé looks around frantically after Elara steers her X-Wing upright to float beside her again, "Which one of you took out those ships?"

"It wasn't any of us, Black Five... It's them. The big flagship-- it's attacking its own fleet!"

"Black Squadron-- Come in, Black Squadron. Do you read?"

"What the..." Karé looks down at her control panel, "Is that Oddy Muva? How are you--"

"Just listen, Karé! I sabotaged the Carrion Spike's battle computers to auto-target anything without a Resistance transponder. Should buy us some time. Terex was keeping slaves on his ship-- I got them out. We're in escape pods-- filled up every last one the Spike had. But... these pods don't have weapons. We'll try to reach the surface of the planet, but with all those Ranc Fighters out there..."

Snap nods to himself, "Understood, Oddy. We'll keep you safe."

Elara turns her X-Wing around, Karé slowly following her lead, "Come on, Black Squadron. We've got work to do."

"Black Three! That TIE Fighter Y-Wing thing is yours. I've got the ugly shuttle-fighter ship."

"Roger that, Black Two. Commencing attack run."

Snap takes aim at one of Terex's ship that was on the tail of one of the escape pods and fires, hitting its mark, "Boom. Gotcha."

"Nice shot, Black Two!" Karé cheers to her boyfriend, "I think we can do this, team-- those pods are gonna get away cle--" as she says this, one of the pods is hit and explodes right front of her eyes and her jaw drops in horror, "NO!"

L'ulo growls, "That's the last one we lose. I swear it. Shooting unarmed escape pods? I'm sending these monsters straight to Hell!"

The old veteran turns his A-Wing around and starts firing at the enemy ships, taking out three of them in a fit of adrenaline, "HA! That's how a Rebel pilot does it, you low-down, dirty--"

Everyone's heads turn at the sound of the radio being cut out and see the vast display of fire exploding from the old A-Wing model and was followed by deafening silence.

"L'ULO!" Jess screams in anguish.

"NO!"

"Dammit!"

Elara lets out a breath of defeat, the flames of the explosion reflecting in her eyes while trying to ignore the screams of the remaining Black Squadron members as they mourn their loss. Looking away so that she no longer had to see the horrific scene, her eyes catch the sight of a Star Destroyer flying out of nowhere towards them, "Guys... we've got another problem. The First Order's arrived."

"What?" Jessika's voice croaks when she eventually looks away from the remains of L'ulo's ship floating out into space.

"What do we do now?" Karé's voice was soft as she stares at their inevitable demise. When the Star Destroyer begins to fire, Black Squadron is shocked to realize that the First Order isn't targeting them at all.

"They... they're aiming at Terex?"

"I thought he was one of them?"

The questions were answered when Terex's flagship bursts into flames within seconds. Elara hums to herself while staring down at the planet, "Guess not. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be caught in the crossfire of whatever little feud is going on here."

"Agreed," Snap responds while turning his ship down towards the planet, "Our next priority is to get to Poe. Let's go, team!"

Unaware of what has been going up in the stars, Poe walks cautiously out of the cave, with Terex tied up on the ground behind him. Dameron was sporting a bandaged hand that was bleeding through from a knife wound along with bruises and dirt covering every inch of him. With his messenger bag on his hip and a filthy little BB-unit rolling at his feet, he walks out to find Threepio still online but in pieces and when he looks up at the sky, he sees a First Order warship destroying what was left of Terex's rogue fleet. When he frantically looks around, he finally spots Resistance ships meant to be his team and sighs in relief. He notices an extra X-Wing he wasn't familiar with and expects it to be Elara. He then also notices that L'ulo's ship is gone, missing from his team's formation, causing his heart to drop at the short-lived celebration. The remains of his team are speeding down towards him as fast as they could. But they are beaten by a small squadron of stormtroopers and TIE fighters that have already landed and are waiting for Poe at the mouth of the cave, "Oh. Okay, then."

"Ah. Commander Poe Dameron, of the New Republic Navy," a tall platinum blonde woman with an authoritative stance steps forward. Her hair was tightly tied behind her head and her eyes were different colors. Her right eye was human with the color red and the other was a black cyborg eye that matched her uniform, practically swallowing the void with such a proud statement of black, "So nice to finally meet you. My name is Commander Malarus."

"Black Leader!" Snap shouts through the radio, "What's happening? We're on our way."

"No!" Poe responds to the communicator while raising his arms up in surrender, "You can't get here in time, Black Two. Stay in the sky, take a holo of everything that happens here," he points the sky out to Commander Malarus so that she would notice his squadron flying above them as her stormtroopers take aim at him, "I am sure the folks on Hosnian Prime would be extremely interested in footage of First Order troops gunning down a New Republic officer. That'd get a war going real fast, and I don't think these guys want that."

"Hm," she hums with a bored expression while looming over him, "I had heard you're a fine pilot. I did not realize you are also skilled politically."

"It's all flying, lady. And I can fly anything."

She doesn't bother commenting until she points at the tied up Terex, "That man belongs to the First Order. I require him."

"Guess there's not a lot I can do to stop you," Poe admits, "He's all yours."

~~~~~~~~~

With Black Squadron recording everything, the First Order quietly take Terex and leave without so much as a threat. With BB-8's help, Poe was able to get his X-Wing started back up just enough to fly back home with the rest of his team, but with a heavy heart. He lands safely enough and mechanics come running up to quickly get a look at the damage. Poe looks around to get a look at his teammates, watching their tired faces through their helmets as they climb out of their ships. 

He hears a huff and turns around. The X-Wing behind him had Elara climbing down the side of it. When she gets to the last step, she jumps off and immediately goes to take off her helmet once she's on solid ground. Poe seeing her in a flight suit for the first time is strange but not unwelcome. Her helmet hair is sort of tamed by the tightly braided bun she had pulled her thick locks into, some loose strands sticking to her shiny face after tucking her helmet under her arm, resting it against her hip. Orange is a good color for her, he decides. It darkens her hair and smoothens out her features, making her appear brighter and much younger.

The sight alone made Poe's lips grow into a smile against his will, "You really can fly."

"Oh, I can fly," she grins in affirmation, "Fly circles around you, that is."

He laughs under his breath as she approached him, leaning down to set her helmet at their feet and then standing up straight again to find herself closer to him than anticipated. But she doesn't back away and neither does he, however, as Elara clears her throat and nods, "How's the hand?"

Poe blinks a few moments before he realized she asked him a question and then looked down at the bandaged hand nestled at his side, still bloodied from the knife wound at the center of his palm. He brings it up to his face and grimaced when he tries flexing it, "Could be worse."

"Yes, I suppose Terex could have cut your whole hand off," Elara rolls her eyes, "Then you'd be one step closer to becoming a Skywalker."

The play of words slips from her mouth before she could even stop it, trying to ignore how hot her face suddenly felt while also playing off the mishap shamelessly when she gently grabbed his injured hand, "I can probably help with this."

Poe decides to save her the embarrassment and wordlessly rests his hand in hers while she carefully unwraps the bandage. She lets the cloth fall to the ground to examine the bleeding hole in the center of Poe's palm and without warning, Elara lifts her other hand up to touch it.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait," Poe suddenly freezes and goes to try and pull his hand back, but Elara expected this and only held on tighter, "What--"

"Trust me, Dameron," she scoffs but there wasn't any heat behind it, "I've already saved your life once today." 

He eyes her warily, trying to find any sort of lie or betrayal behind her eyes only to come back up empty. But not completely empty. He was still looking at her eyes for something, but he wasn't sure what. Her eye color wasn't completely gray as he originally thought. They had specks of green in them as well, and now that he was up close to them, they looked more like a bar of silver, raging sea compared to the storm clouds he originally thought was her gaze. When he realized he wasn't breathing, still drowning in her ocean, he tried to calmly come up for air and nodded for her to continue, and he tried his very hardest not to appear disappointed when she looked away to examine his hand. 

She gently touches the wound with her free hand, and Poe hisses under his breath. When watching the scene, Poe noticed the hard look of concentration on Elara's face caused the frown lines on her forehead to reappear, her lips dropping from her previous smile as she focuses solely on his hand. He, in turn, also watched his hand when he suddenly felt the pain seeping away like smoke. His eyes widen in amazement to find the knife wound healing underneath Elara's touch, and within seconds the cut and blood had completely vanished. She sighs in victory when the wound had healed and looked up at Poe with a tired smile. She appeared a little drained, paler than before but all the same glowing under the thin sheen of sweat on her face. Poe felt something in his chest rise up to squeeze at his throat, rendering him speechless when he had the pleasure of seeing her eyes again.

She sees something in his gaze that makes her freeze, and for a moment she looked panicked. Hastily, she dropped his hand and stepped away, clearing her throat again and nodding, "There you go, good as new. Wouldn't want you complaining about getting a prosthetic or cyborg hand in order for you to fly again."

Poe could only nod in response. He should be saying something, anything, to lessen whatever was making the air feel so heavy between them. And for a moment, Poe could only hear his own heartbeat pounding loudly in his ears. He finally blinks and goes to open his mouth.

"Ah, thank heavens you're alright! Mistress Elara!"

That voice wasn't his. The young Skywalker turns and Poe could have sworn that had to be, by far, the brightest smile he has ever seen on the woman. It was blinding yet all the more captivating as C-3PO slowly shuffles up to her. She places a hand on his golden shoulder, "Hey, Threepio. Leia put in that backup memory unit already?"

"Yes, indeed! And thanks to you, I wasn't scrapped by the First Order."

"I wouldn't let them. You're family, buddy. And no one messes with my family."

Poe's eyebrows raise as he watches the interaction, while Threepio appears baffled and delighted, "Oh, it's so nice to hear you say that. But I'm afraid that the First Order might have stolen valuable information from my memory units--"

"Information that you yourself always decrypt and hide in plain sight," Elara encourages while patting the side of the droid's metalhead, "Don't worry, buddy. There is no one in the entire galaxy smart enough to decrypt your codes."

"If only Artoo were here to agree with you, I might actually believe it."

Her gaze turns soft, eyes dimming the light Poe just had the privilege of seeing for the first time and now he wants to bop Threepio upside the head for being the cause behind her smile falling. She sighs and nods, "I know, buddy. I miss him, too."

Threepio lightens his tone after a long moment of silence while addressing her, "Excuse me, Commander."

Elara watches him walk away until he disappears, turning back around and doesn't feel all too surprised that Poe was still standing there. His eyes looked heavy, either from exhaustion or loss, or maybe even both, she wasn't sure as she softens her voice, "I'm sorry about L'ulo."

Poe lowers his eyes at the reminder of his loss. He's been trying not to think about it too much since they had just landed back at base, but now all he could think about how much he owes his life to L'ulo. He was there for Poe after his mother died, helping his father raise him. He picked up what Shara Bey left off, teaching her son everything he needed to know about flying. At the very thought of all of that, Poe could feel his throat closing back up and tries to respond with a quick nod, "You were right about calming down so I could think straight. I know who the spy is... and I don't like it," Elara's eyebrows shoot up and waits patiently for the news, "Oddy Muva... L'ulo died protecting him."

Her face falls and she also joins Poe at staring at the ground while thinking about this information. He tries to clear his throat of pain while whispering, "I... I have to tell my father."

Elara nods, "I'll have everyone clear out of communications."

The action stuns Poe for a moment and slowly forms a smile of appreciation, "Thank you."