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chapter forty-seven: murphy's law
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    INDIRA CAN'T FIND POE. And — in hindsight — that should have been her first sign that something was wrong. Whatever weird understanding she had come to with Holdo, Poe had not been a part of it and Indira needs to tell him about it before he goes and does something rash. Despite her personal dislike for Holdo, she knows that there must have been some reason that Leia trusted her. Her aunt never would have allowed an incompetent person to serve as a commanding officer in the Resistance and for that sole reason, Indira is willing to give the vice admiral the benefit of the doubt one last time.

    Of course, it wasn't as if she had many other options. Finn, Rose, and Stefan had yet to even sneak onboard the First Order cruiser when she had seen them in her dream. The odds that they would somehow be able to make it onto the ship and disable the tracker in time were slim to none.

     Eventually, she decides to give up the hunt for Poe. Most of the Resistance members are already helping to load the transports and she knows that she can be of use to them. Besides, she was done playing babysitter for a grown man. If Poe did something reckless, that would be on him. Indira wasn't going to bother with trying to stop him any longer.

     She falls in line beside one of the other ground support workers and helps him move a crate full of supplies across the hangar. As soon as the heavy load is set down, Indira moves on to the next available job and starts to hook up power converters to one of the available transports. However, she doesn't get very far in her job before she is stopped by someone calling her name.

      "Lieutenant Beren! Lieutenant Beren!" C-3PO's tinny voice shouts from somewhere behind her.

     Indira spins around quickly. "Threepio, what's going on?"

      "It's the general!" He replies, sounding frantic. "You'd better go quickly!"

      Indira doesn't think to ask what he means by that. Her mind just zeroes in on one thing — Leia — and everything else becomes a blur. She drops the power converters in her hands and runs, leaving the droid behind before he can elaborate any further on Leia's condition.

      Oh, gods, she thinks as she skids down the busy corridors. She pushes past crowds of people, running as quickly as she can. Murphy's Law would dictate that something terrible is about to happen. I don't know why I even expect things to go right at this point. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong in our little corner of the galaxy.

      Indira bursts through the doors of the medical wing, anticipating something horrible to be waiting for her on the other side. Except she finds the room to be oddly serene in contrast to her internal chaos. Her eyes scan the quarters, stopping on the sight of a small, frail figure dressed in all white that is sitting up in one of the hospital beds. Indira's jaw drops in shock and a gasp escapes her lips before she slaps a hand over her mouth.

     "Hey, kiddo," Leia Organa says, her voice hoarse but still strong. "What'd I miss?"

     Indira opens and closes her mouth several times, searching for words that she can't find. As soon as she tries to make a sound, she finds that her voice is gone, and before she can stop herself, the young woman immediately bursts into tears.

      "Oh, dear," the general says, perturbed. "Were things that bad without me?"

    BY SOME MIRACULOUS stroke of luck, Poe manages to make contact with Finn, Rose, and Stefan. The trio inform him of their time on Canto Bight — a disaster, really, involving a brief stay in jail and a very thrilling fathier chase — yet they had successfully managed to locate Calrissian and were nearly in range of the First Order fleet. It's the first piece of good news that Poe has gotten in weeks. He nearly cries when he hears it.

     Even so, he knows that his friends will need more time to complete their mission, so he comes up with a plan. It's a terrible plan, really, and he isn't even sure that it will work, but he goes forward with it anyways. Slowly, he begins to search for allies amongst the remaining crew, pulling them aside one by one to talk to them individually. He asks C'ai Threnalli — the Abednedo pilot, Kaydel Ko Connix, and a few others to join him before deciding his small little team will have to be enough.

      ( He does not ask Indira Beren to join him, despite his better instincts screaming at him to find her. Besides — he's pretty sure she wouldn't want to help him with this, anyways, and the last thing he needs is another argument. )

     As soon as his team is assembled, Poe relays his plan to them: they confront Holdo and present her with the information about Finn, Rose, and Stefan. The vice admiral either agrees to a peaceful transition of power and steps down from her position of leadership or she is removed by force. Still, Poe tells all of them to set their weapons to stun. The last thing he wants is for anyone else in the Resistance to end up seriously hurt.

     After they come to an agreement about the plan, the team splits and Poe makes his way to the hangar where he knows Holdo will be loading the transports. He hardly even notices when a familiar dark-haired figure goes barreling past him, pushing him out of the way without a second glance as she runs down the hallway. Poe frowns when he sees her and almost abandons his mission to go after her, but he forces himself to focus on the task.

      He knows Indira well enough to not underestimate her ability to take care of herself — especially since she is apparently the daughter of the greatest Jedi who ever lived? Yeah, he definitely isn't getting over that any time soon.

     As he enters the ship bay, Poe resists the urge to shake his head in disgust at the sight of the transport ships being filled with fuel. As soon as he spots Vice Admiral Holdo, he approaches the woman in command and plants himself directly in her line of vision. "Vice Admiral," he says without preamble, forcing her attention onto him. "We need to talk."

     "I'm busy, Captain —"

     "You're going to want to hear this," he interrupts. "Look, I wouldn't be telling you this unless if there was any other choice, but we're out of options and time. Roughly twenty-four hours ago, I dispatched a small team of Resistance fighters on a mission to disable the First Order's hyperspace tracker on their lead ship ..."

     As he speaks, Poe watches Holdo's face grow more and more impassive. The longer he talks, the more expressionless she becomes until he completes his long-winded explanation and comes to a conclusion.

     "... so, I guess what I'm trying to ask is if you're willing to work with me and help my friends out or not," Poe finishes. "The choice is yours."

     For a moment, Holdo is silent. Poe isn't sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing until she speaks with carefully bridled fury. "You defied my orders and broke a man out of the brig on this ship ..." she repeats. "And now a stormtrooper, a traitor and a who-now are doing what?"

      Poe bristles slightly at that. "They have names," he snaps. "And they are trying to save our lives. This is our best chance for escape. You have to give Finn, Rose, and Stefan all the time that you can."

     Her face contorts with anger. "You have bet the survival of the Resistance on bad odds and put us all at risk. There's no time now! We have to get clear of the cruiser. Load the transports!"

     Holdo pushes past him and Poe sighs, setting his hand on the gun in his belt. "Yeah, I was afraid you might say that," he mutters, nodding towards his team before spinning around.

     "Vice Admiral Holdo, I am relieving you of your command," Poe announces, raising his gun towards the woman. Beside him, C'ai, Connix, and the other pilots also raise their weapons, "for the survival of this ship, its crew, and the Resistance."

     Holdo's eyebrows raise in surprise before her mouth falls into a hard line. "I hope you understand what you're doing," she warns, but shows no other sign of protesting his mutiny.

     "Yeah," Poe agrees, tucking his gun back into his belt. "I'm going to the bridge." He looks to C'ai and the other pilots. "If they move, stun 'em."

      "WELL," HER AUNT SIGHS once Indira finishes her small recap of the past couple of days onboard the Raddus, sparing the less important details in favor of the big ones. She had stopped crying and finally found herself able to speak, taking a seat next to Leia on the hospital bed. "I had hoped that things would run a bit smoother if I ever found myself out of commission, but I suppose that this has been a learning experience for all of us."

     "It's been horrible," Indira exclaims. "We were totally lost without you."

     Leia sighs again. "I'm sure you mean that as a compliment," she tells her niece, patting her hand gently, "but it concerns me more than I'd like to admit."

     Indira frowns without meaning to. "I know," she says. "But things will be better now that you're here. You can talk to Holdo about her plan and help her see reason. The transports aren't safe; there has to be something else that we can —"

      Her aunt raises a hand, silencing her quickly. "What do you mean the transports aren't safe?"

      "They have no shields and no guns," Indira replies, puzzled. "As soon as the First Order picks them up on their scanners, we'll all be blown to hell."

     The general shakes her head. "The transports on this ship have all recently been equipped with cloaking devices," Leia says. "Unless the First Order is already running de-cloaking scans, our ships won't show up on their monitors. They're too small to be detected."

     "What?" Indira demands, gaping at her. "Are you serious?"

     Leia frowns. "Did Amilyn not tell you this information?"

     "No!" She replies furiously. "She most certainly did not!"

     "What the varp," the general mutters, rubbing her bandaged head. "Admiral Holdo should have made that clear to all of you a long time ago. Once the transports are cloaked, we'll be able to sneak down to a nearby planet called Crait. There's an old rebel base hidden within a mine on its surface. From there, we can send a distress signal to our allies in the Outer Rim once the First Order passes us by."

     Indira shakes her head. "I didn't know any of that," she breathes. "We all thought Holdo was sentencing us to death."

     Leia raises a brow at her niece. "You don't seem to like her very much."

     She winces and ducks her head. "Admiral Holdo and I got off to a bad start," Indira says carefully. "She threw Stefan into jail and she knew things about me — about our family — that only you and I should know. It scared me."

     Leia doesn't look surprised by this information. "She knew because I told her," she replies. "Amilyn is a close friend of mine; she has been for many years. I wanted someone to know the truth in case anything like this," she gestures to her bedridden state, "happened to me, so they could look after you in my stead."

      Indira blanches at that.

      "Look after me?!" She nearly shouts. "She belittled me, insulted me, and threatened to blackmail me! I'm sorry, but she was not a good choice for a mentor; no offense intended."

       "Yes, I can see that now," Leia surmises with a frown. "Clearly, there was a miscommunication at some point."

      "That's a massive understatement," Indira grumbles before softening slightly.. "But I'm just glad that you're alright."

     "My fight's not over yet," Leia replies, chucking Indira under the chin. "And neither is yours. Help me stand up, will you?"

      Indira nods and lets Leia lean on her as she rises from the bed. One of the med droids hands her a cane and Leia takes it in her hand, shaking the slightest bit as she presses her weight against it and finds her balance. "That's better," she announces. "Now, I need to get changed out of this gown so we can —"

     Before Leia can say another word, a familiar winged droid comes buzzing into the room at full speed. Indira sighs when she sees EV-1, knowing that — more likely than not — her droid is only there to deliver tidings of bad news. "Hey, Evie," she says half-heartedly. "What's going on?"

      The scrappy little droid launches into a long stream of beeps and whistles, zooming around the ceiling in agitated circles as it recounts the events that had occurred in the hangar after Indira left. The technician pinches the bridge of her nose as she listens, nodding in confirmation until her droid finishes.

      "I'm gonna kill him," Indira finally says, breaking the tense silence. "I swear, I'm going to do it."

     "A mutiny," Leia repeats angrily in spite of the faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Why am I not surprised? That stubborn boy would never allow the Resistance to go down without a fight."

     "What do we do now?" Indira asks.

      "We go to him and put an end to all of this," Leia replies. "And then we get the hell off this ship."

     A LOUD BOOM ECHOES on the other side of the door to the bridge. Poe watches from the pilot's seat as the noise grows louder and louder just outside. Beside him, Connix looks equally worried as she glances back and forth between the monitor and the door; her head turning sharply with each movement. The two of them had gone straight to the bridge after Poe's takeover at the hangar and had sealed themselves in by overriding the main doors, allowing no one else to enter or exit the command center — including C-3PO, who had somehow managed find himself at the center of the chaos.

      From the corner of his eye, Poe can see the droid inching his way towards the door. "Threepio," he says suspiciously. "Where do you think you're going?"

      The droid gives an indignant huff. "It would be quite against my programming to be party to a mutiny."

     "Hey!" Poe warns him, holding up an indignant finger. "Don't you dare step any closer to that door."

      The protocol droid continues to waddle away from him. "It is not correct protocol!"

     Before C-3PO can make it much further, the doors begin to spark as a crew works to force them open from the other side. The protocol droid lets out a surprised shriek before turning in the opposite direction and hurrying over to Connix's side, cowering behind her.

      "Finn," Poe shouts into the comm link in his ear. "What's going on, pal? We're ready to make the jump."

     "Got it," the former stormtrooper confirms before hissing to someone on his end. "Calrissian, it's now or never!"

     "I'm working, kid," a gruff voice replies in the background. "Just give me a minute —"

     If the circumstances were different, Poe Dameron would be over the moon with the fact that the General Lando Calrissian is on the other line of his comm link. But the novelty of hearing one of his childhood heroes speak is overshadowed by the enormous sense of dread and anxiety that has been steadily building in his stomach for the past several days. He needs this plan to work. He needs everyone to be safe. Nothing else matters.

     As the noise on the other side of the door grows louder and louder, Poe finds himself hardly able to breathe. He can't allow Holdo to take back command; not when Finn, Stefan, and Rose are so close to saving them. And once the fleet is safe, Poe will find his way to Jess and the rest of his squadron so they can be together again. But, he won't be able to do that if they run out of fuel — or even worse — if he is trapped in the confines of a transport that will soon be blown to hell by the First Order.

Poe slips out of his seat and ducks behind the captain's chair, raising his blaster in preparation to stun whoever is on the other side of the door. This is going to work, he thinks to himself. It has to, it has to.

     But then he hears voices on the other side of the comm link.

      "You there, drop your weapons!" Someone orders. "Hands up, rebel scum. Get down — I said, get down!"

      Poe's breath catches in his throat. No, no, no, he thinks. This can't be happening.

"FN-2187," a woman's smug voice crackles over the comm link. "So good to have you back."

     And the line goes dead.

His stomach drops at the cold realization and Poe feels sick. All of their planning had been for nothing. His friends had been captured and would likely be killed. All hope was lost for the Resistance now. He shakes his head in disbelief, hardly able to speak the truth out loud. "They didn't make it."

He doesn't have much time to think on that before the door to the bridge explodes, blowing apart in huge chunks. Poe readies his weapon, prepared to shoot whoever enters the room first. However, when the dust and smoke clears, his brow furrows as he focuses on a short, white-clad figure. No, he thinks; hardly daring to believe his own eyes. It can't be —

"Leia?" Poe asks in disbelief.

The general fixes him with a stare that is nothing short of utterly exasperated before giving him a single nod.

      Without wasting a second, Poe drops his gun and surrenders instantly to his general. Everything had gone wrong — so, so terribly wrong — but Leia was here now. It would all work out now that she was there. He hadn't been ready to lead — not while he had so much left to learn — and the burden of trying to hold everything together on his own had weighed heavily on his shoulders. He was all too willing to give it up now.

"I surrender," he says quickly, raising his hands in the air as he steps out from behind the chair to approach her. "My plan sucked and I think I might have messed everything up. My friends got captured and I think our fleet might be doomed. You have every right to demote me even further or kick me off the ship — whatever you want — but boy am I glad to see you, General. You're a sight for sore eyes."

     "Oh, hell, Poe," Leia swears; the words comforting and familiar as she rolls her eyes at his rambling. "Just shut up for once and give me a hug, Captain."

      Immediately, his mouth snaps shut as he makes his way towards her and embraces her quickly. As Poe holds his mentor tight, it feels like the weight of the galaxy has been lifted from his shoulders and he finally allows himself to exhale for what feels like the first time in days.

      "I'll take the reigns from here," she says quietly in his ear.

      He nods quickly, catching sight of Indira behind Leia's shoulder. She raises an eyebrow at him, face stern, and he just sighs before looking away. "Yes, ma'am."

      It's the easiest order he's ever obeyed.

a/n: here's my favorite meme from tlj i hope you all enjoy

EDITED ON:
11.09.19