Poe felt an absurd amount of pressure on his lungs before he fell. He hit the ground and gasped. The first thing he registered was how heavy the air was down here. The second thing he registered was his beeping droid right beside him, and the third thing he registered was the disappointing clank of metal that told him that whoever had fallen behind him wasn't ___, but it was C-3PO. 

He got up on his feet and pulled out his flashlight. In the dim green light it gave off, he turned around. "___!? ___!?" he yelled, and then as the silence fell on him, he added fearfully, "Rey! Finn!" 

"You didn't say my name, sir, but I'm alright," C-3PO said. 

Rey let out a cry of pain as she fell through the sand. Poe rushed over and held his arms out, giving her something better to fall on than the hard ground at the bottom. He set her down and she looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. 

"Are you all right?" he asked. 

She nodded. "Where's Finn? Where's Chewie?" 

"I don't know. Where's ___?" he asked. He got up and looked around, gripping his flashlight tight. "She was right next to me!"

"I'm good," Finn said, stumbling out of a crack in the wall. "I thought we were goners."

"This isn't the after-life, is it?" C-3PO asked. 

"Where is ___!?" Poe shouted. He whirled around. "___?!"

Suddenly Chewbacca dropped and hit the ground. Rey rushed to his side, and then Poe heard a loud gasp. He turned and watched you drop to the ground. You hit your back too hard and your jaw dropped as you felt the shooting pain up your spine. 

"___!" He was leaning over you now, gently putting his hands underneath you to pull you up. "Are you okay?"

"You couldn't have been there to catch me, Dameron?" you asked, rubbing the back of your head. You would definitely have more than a few bruises.

"Not that time," he said, his lips twitching into a smile. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah," you said, and you let him pull you up onto your feet. You brushed the sand off of your clothes and then felt the absence of your blaster. "Darn." 

"What?" 

"My blaster is gone," you told him. 

At the same moment, it broke through the sand, and Poe caught it. He spun it in his hand and held it out to you. "Here you go."

You grinned and rolled your eyes as you put it back in the holster. The flashlight in his hands flickered out; he smacked the bottom of it until it emitted more light. 

"Stay close to me," he said.

You nodded and swallowed hard. Your throat was dry; you felt like you had followed a mouthful of sand. You probably did. Your entire body felt gritty with the stuff. Holding Poe's hand, you could feel the roughness of his palm, coated in course sand. But he gripped you tightly and you felt better holding him like this.

"Hey," you said, voice dropping, "what were you going to ask me?" 

"What?" 

"When we were sinking, you said that you never got to ask me," you said. "What was it?" 

"Oh." He looked behind him, where Finn and Rey were talking with their heads close together. He grabbed your elbow and lead you a ways away nonetheless, wanting to give all of the privacy he could within this dark cave. "It's just... it isn't a surprise. I think I've mentioned having a future enough that you know where this is heading, but... yeah. I wanted to ask if you'd marry me once all of this is over."

You watched as he pulled the chain off of his neck. He looked at it. Dangling from the silver was a simple gold band that you recognized.

"This was my mother's ring," he said. 

Your throat burned. "I-I know it was. Poe---"

He took it off the chain, shoved the chain far into his pocket, and held his hand out for yours. "I want you to wear it, if you want to marry me." 

"But that ring is so important to you---"

He looked at you with genuine confusion. "___, I love you. And I feel like I always knew that I would, ever since you saved me from the First Order. I want to marry you. I want you to wear this for the rest of our lives. I know this isn't how I wanted to ask you, and I don't think you wanted to be asked this way either. But listen, if we are going to die in this war..."

He couldn't seem to finish, and you didn't need him to. If you compared this to your engagement to Hux --- well, there wasn't much to compare. There wasn't an ounce of love within your relationship of Hux. As his job grew more important, you grew more into a trophy or a political piece. You were the daughter of a man who wanted more power in the First Order; you were engaged to a man who wanted more power as well.  

But with Poe, you knew that you were loved and wanted genuinely. He understood your humor. He understood your fears. He took care of you, and even when that protectiveness annoyed you, you weren't struck or punished for expressing your feelings. Poe Dameron would never hurt you.

You put his face in your hands and reached up, kissing him fully on his warm lips. Your fingers slipped into his hair at the nape of his neck and you gripped the curls there. You stopped kissing him but you didn't break away. Instead, you kept your forehead against his, the tips of your noses touching. You shut your eyes, although it was so dark that it wouldn't matter if you did or not. 

"I'll marry you," you said simply. "And neither of us are going to die in this war. No matter what happens, we will be okay."

"Right," he said, and you felt his smile. He kissed the corner of your mouth and pulled back, his thumb stroking your cheek before he swapped your face for your hands. He pulled your left hand close and you smiled as he pushed the ring onto your finger.

"Well, would you look at that, Dameron," you said, entwining your fingers with his. "Who would've thought that I would save you from the First Order, and then you would propose to me?"

"I think you're missing a huge chunk of our story there, but hey, it sounds romantic." He kissed you again. 

"Did you seriously just propose in here?" Finn asked. His and Rey's eyes were on you, with Chewbacca and C-3PO staring at you from directly behind them. "Seriously?"

"What? It was romantic, and we almost died!" Poe said. He shook his head. "Whatever. We... we have a mission."

"Yes, we have a mission," Finn said, "and it doesn't include proposals. But congratulations. You two are my best friends and I am very happy for you both." He nodded and walked around the two of you. 

Rey gave a sweet smile and you laughed softly. Her hand went around yours. "Come on, we have to hurry." She ignited her lightsaber, which was far brighter than Poe's crappy flashlight. You snickered and he sighed. "So what was it?" she continued, speaking to Finn now.

"What?"

"What you were gonna tell me?" she asked. 

"When?"

"When you were sinking in the sand, you said 'I never told you...'"

"Oh. I'll tell you later," he said. 

"You mean when Poe's not here?" Poe asked, pushing between the two. You followed. 

"Yeah," Finn said. "Mm-hm." 

"We're gonna die in the sand burrows and you're keeping secrets?"

"Not everyone is as dramatic as you are," Finn said. "Proposing underground. Pfft." 

You rolled your eyes. "Come on, boys, let's all get along."

Poe's flashlight created a flood of dull green that lit up several huge tunnels. They were too dark to see all the way inside. "I do not want to know what made these tunnels." 

"Judging by the circumference of the tunnel walls---" C-3PO started. 

"I said I don't want to know," he corrected. "Not. Wait --- what's that?"

"Is that a... speeder?" 

You walked around Poe and stood slightly in front of him. You knelt down to observe it; the vehicle was dusty and rusted with age, but it was a speeder. "An old one." 

"Perhaps we will find the driver!" C-3PO said optimistically. 

BB-8 chirped at your feet. You laughed. "Yeah, BB-8, I think dead, too," Poe agreed with his droid.

Behind you, C-3PO gasped. "Oh... my! A hex charm."

Poe turned. "A what?" 

"A common emblem of Sith loyalists," he explained. Sure enough, on the speeder was an emblem. A wave of cold went over you. 

"Sith?" Poe hissed. 

"This was Ochi's?" 

"Luke sensed it," Rey said, "Ochi never left this place." 

"And he ended up down here," Finn said, nodding as the pieces came together. 

Poe sighed. "He was headed for his ship. Same thing that happened to us happened to him."

"So how did Ochi get out?" you asked. 

Rey answered plainly, "He didn't."

And in the blue and green light, you saw the decomposed bones of Ochi, twisted and half buried in the sand of the tunnel. You swallowed hard, feeling the overwhelming coolness of the tunnel, despite the hot planet that you were on. Rey's arm that pressed against yours was cold as well.

"No, he didn't," Finn said softly.

"Bones," Poe said, shaking his head. He looked slightly sick at the sight of the decomposed body that had become nothing else. "I don't like bones."

You put your arm around his waist. "I don't like our odds of getting out of here."

"Neither do I," he said, "but I'm not letting us die here." 

BB-8 pushed between your leg and Poe's. He beeped and rolled forward. Rey stepped ahead. "Yeah, I see it!" She moved the sand away and pulled out a strange dagger. She stared at it, and the room seemed to fall several degrees cooler. "Horrible things... have happened with this."

"There's writing on it," Poe said. 

"Perhaps I can translate," C-3PO said. Rey held it out to him. "Oh. The location of the wayfinder has been inscribed on this dagger! It's the clue that Master Luke was looking for."

"And? Where's the wayfinder?" 

"I am afraid I cannot tell you."

"Twenty point three fazillion languages, and you can't read that?" Poe asked in frustration. 

You sighed and rubbed your forehead as C-3PO explained himself. "Oh, I have read it, sir! I know exactly where the wayfinder is. Unfortunately, it is written in the runic language of the Sith."

Rey shook her head. "So what?"

"My programming forbids me from translating it."

"So you're telling me that one time we need you to talk, you can't?" Poe said. 

"Irony, sir," the droid replied. As the four glaring eyes of you and your friends weighed heavy on him, he backed up fearfully. "I am mechanically incapable of speaking translations from Sith. I believe the rule was passed by the Senate of the Old Republic---"

Your eyes widened and your heart fell. The grip you had around Poe tightened as you saw the horrifying face of a serpent rise above C-3PO's head, its jaw opened to reveal teeth and a long, dripping tongue. 

Rey pulled back her weapon and Finn and Poe pulled out their blasters. You fumbled with yours, squatting slightly underneath Poe as you raised your gun and pointed it at the snake. 

"Serpent! Serpent! Serpent!" cried C-3PO, who ran behind you with his arms waving in the air. 

The six-eyed serpent hissed loudly, spewing spit forward in its anger. It wriggled back in the darkness of the cave, and you wondered when it was going to attack.

But Rey pushed your blaster down gently, and Poe's as well. She gave Finn her lightsaber. And you looked at her in disbelief as she stepped towards the horrifying beast. "Rey, no---"

She silenced you with a look and stepped forward with her eyes on the creature. It snarled and hissed and snapped at her, and you pulled your blaster right back up. You were terrified for your friend. 

"Finn," Poe said between gritted teeth. He shook his head slowly. His finger itched to press down on the trigger. "I'm gonna blast it."

"Don't blast it," Finn whispered. 

Rey stepped over the serpent's coiled tail. She held her hands up in surrender, showing the beast that she wasn't a threat. She slowly lowered herself to her knees. Meanwhile, your hands were trembling... 

And she placed her hand on the tail gently, right over a wound in the serpent's flesh. Slowly, the deep cuts began to close. 

The creature made a sound, a sound of relief. It blinked at Rey once and then began to slither away, creating a new tunnel. Poe sighed in relief as it disappeared. His blaster lowered and so did yours. You stood up straight, your shoulder against his. He put his hand on your arm as the serpent's tail broke a bit of the wall. Real sunlight flooded inside. 

BB-8 curiously asked her what she had just done. "I just transferred a bit of life," she said. "Force energy from me to him." BB-8 chirped and she smiled. "You would have done the same."

Chewie picked up the dagger and put it in his bag and you stepped toward the sunlight, the feeling of warmth and the feeling of freedom wonderful against your face.