Miles and miles away from the closest civilization on the desert planet Jakku was where Poe and I found ourselves. We touched down on the edge of a hill, where the top had been carved out for a village to thrive.

On our way into the village, BB-8 trailing behind us, Poe nudged my hand with his own. "I think it's best if maybe I try to talk to this guy alone."

"If we want to keep this secret, I agree," I said.

"I can guarantee there won't be much fighting. If we're lucky, there won't be any at all," said Poe. 

I watched him walk, my eyes squinted curiously. Poe knew better than anyone that combat fighting was my forte. He also knew how dangerous I could get, if certain triggers were pulled. A stealth mission did not require my skill set. Using my Jedi status as a cover to what we were retrieving seemed to me as though it was more work than necessary.

Poe glanced to me. "What's with that face, pretty girl?"

"Do you ever miss the old days?" I asked; the first lie I could think of. I wanted to wait until I had more evidence against him to argue my case. Whatever reason he brought me on that mission, it wasn't to use me as a cover.

"When we got into bar fights almost every other night?" asked Poe. "You miss that?"

"I meant when I could fight without needing to be aware of restraint," I said.

Poe smiled sadly and stole a kiss on my cheek. "We haven't seen one another in person for years, En. Just thought I'd make up for lost time," he defended.

We stopped in front of the tent. He pulled apart the bamboo slivers, looked back at me and said a quiet, "May the force be with you," before he ducked into the tent.

"And also with you," I said under my breath. I crouched beside his droid. "Wanna circle the perimeter?"

BB-8 dropped his head in a nod. He disappeared from my sight. Head held high, I casually observed the village. A tug on my jeans brought my head to the sand.

"Hi, Miss," called a small child.

"Are you a Jedi?" another asked.

I took a step back, ridding the hand from my leg. "It's a secret."

"Tell us! Tell us!" begged the six children.

Without meeting their eyes, I shushed them. I spoke quietly, for only their ears. "Jedi are low in numbers these days, younglings. Seeing one is a miracle."

Eyes wide, one child leaned on my knees again."Can you show us the.." he lowered his voice. "Force?"

I didn't reply at first. When avoiding the children's stares, a blinding light flashed across my eyes. I straightened my back. Over the hill was a rapidly approaching a blinding light. The nauseous feeling in the pit in my stomach heightened when I saw BB-8 rolling at high speed back to me.

One of the children patted my bare stomach. "Miss? Could you--?"

"Get out of here," I said fiercely.

"But we haven't seen you use the force!" whined a couple. 

I yelled a harsh, "Get out of here!" that sent the children scurrying to their families.

I pushed through the bamboo curtain. I found the old man, Lor San Tekka, placing a tiny device into Poe's hand. Their heads turned to me as I entered.

"Everything okay?" asked Poe. 

"We've got company."

Poe clenched the device in his fist. He set his hand on the old man's shoulder. "You have to hide."

"You have to leave," said the old man in return. "Go."

Poe and I regrouped with BB-8 the second we exited the tent. In the distance, the one light I scouted turned into three. Judging by the shape, the size, the position of the light-- the ships held masses of stormtroopers. All together, Poe, BB-8, and I sprinted to our ship before we wasted anymore precious time.

The villagers had seen the incoming attackers. We ran past men exiting their homes with giant weapons; we saw women stacking crates as barriers. What we saw was a village readying themselves to defend their home.

I figured quickly they had no chance. Their weapons were outdated; they were outnumbered.

Poe leaped into the BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighter. The engines came to life, BB-8 was sucked into his spot on top of the ship, and all that was left to complete before take off was me, in my position as the gunner.

Halfway up the ladder, I turned my head to watch the scene. Stormtroopers waited not a second off the plane to start to killing by sporadically firing. Dozens of troopers using the same battle technique was slaughtering the villagers in the front line instantly.

Poe's hand roughly grabbed my cheeks, turning me to face them. "Stop. We have to go."

My hesitancy to leave those people without a chance was what hurt us, in the end. As Poe held my face, a stormtrooper took notice of our ship. He recruited two other troopers, a few precise shots hit our ship, successfully throwing myself from the ladder and ruining our engines.

"Enna!" shouted Poe. "Enna, hold on!"

As I laid on my back, hacking, forcing my lungs to work again, Poe climbed into my seat and fired at the three troopers. He released BB-8 from the ship. He jumped to the sand, pulling my body behind the giant wheel of our ship.

"The Stormtroopers can't take this village," I said.

"They already have," he mumbled. "That's why we need to leave. The information I got is going to make this raid worth something. I know it will."

"I'm sorry," I coughed, moving to my knees.

Poe shook his head. Again, his hand cupped my cheek. "I won't ever be mad at you for wanting to save people, Enna."

He pulled me into his chest when the engine was fired at again. I wiggled from his protective hold. On a count of three, I sprung from my knees, killed the trooper with a head shot, then crawled back to Poe. I set my blaster back into my shoulder holster.

"This is safer with you than it is with me," Poe was saying to BB-8. He didn't notice my return, due to his back facing me. His voice was low. "BB-8, listen to me: you take her, you get as far away from here as you can, and you don't let her stop until you're both safe."

"No," I snapped.

Poe's shoulders raised and dropped with a deep breath. "I need to deal with them."

His words were chosen specifically, in a way that would allow me to understand the hidden meaning. In the chance a villager, someone who had noticed my lightsaber, was captured by a member of the First Order, one of the first topics of conversation would be about the woman Jedi who passed through the village. People in fright, or in near death, would rat out a Jedi to stay alive. It went without saying.

"I won't risk your life," he said.

"So I get to lose you instead?"

"I'll take my chances."

"If all you're asking me to do is run, why was I brought?"

Poe pointed to his droid. "You're protecting vital information for the Resistance. I trust you to keep it safe, to keep BB-8 safe."

"You can't ask me to leave you behind," I whispered; my only argument left.

Poe's cold hands engulfed my warm cheeks. His brown eyes looked into my own. "You're right, Enna. But just this time, I need you to. For the good of the galaxy, I need you to leave me behind."

Putting our situation in prospective opened my eyes from my selfish point of view. I nodded, once for myself, and once for him. "Stay alive. I'll find you when this is over."

Over the hill came a lone stormtrooper, who was killed by a single shot from my blaster over Poe's shoulder. He hadn't flinched, he hadn't moved. His focus was on me. His thumbs gently ran over my cheeks, feeling, remembering.

"I have to go," I whispered.

"Hold on to what I told you when we first joined the Resistance," he said.

My face fell blank. I tried to remember the words he had uttered many years ago. 

"You remember that, you remember our history, and I promise you we'll be together again," he whispered. His lips pressed against my forehead. I closed my eyes.

"We better."