05 || poe's problem

"GENERAL, WE'VE GOT A BIGGER MATTER THAN JUST THE FIRST ORDER ON OUR HANDS."

RESISTANCE BASE, ILLENIAN SYSTEM-

Poe felt betrayed.

Sitting in a cantina, all alone, satchel now empty (along with his purse strings), he was rather hurt. A girl, one that seemed so inconspicuous with her trusting eyes and small hidden smile had stolen from him.

No, not just him.

Stolen something from the Resistance.

Space Girl ( as he had so nicknamed her) hadn't left him a clue as to who she actually was, only walking out with two men that she had seemingly told him were competitors in the smuggling business. Now, he knew that they weren't. They were her backup, and most likely some sort of trooper.

And the girl was a spy.

She had played Poe like a fiddle, tempting him in with her vague answers to attempt to have a mysterious guise about herself, a twinkle in her eyes something familiar to his. A sense of rebellion and adventure, hidden behind a shadow of everything she had lost.

Unfortunately for Poe, that wasn't the case. She had been spying for the First Order, using him to get what she desired - that machine part they had intercepted in a First Order shipping smuggling ship. And he still had no clue what the machine did still.

Space Girl has made up lies about what it did and the benefits of it. She said it was perfect for a smuggler's ship, something to make it go faster. Surprisingly, Poe didn't believe that it did anything even remotely close to that.

Downing the last of his drink, Poe threw out the last two coins he had on the table, making sure the bartender was well paid for the skirmish that had just occurred inside of his cantina, brushing himself off and walking out of the bar. The music from inside the cantina could still be faintly heard as the doors shut behind him, the man not bothering to look back at his place of failure.

Just outside, his faithful droid, his friend BB-8 sat patiently, the rules of no droids inside of a cantina holding firm in this behind the times Outer Rim planet.

"Hey, BB." He greeted, pushing a hand through his hair with a pitiful and sorrowful sigh. The beeps of his droid answered his greeting, almost asking a question of his friend and master. "Yeah, I didn't exactly find the information that I wanted."

Surprised noises came from the droid, the small ball like droid banging up against his master hard, earning a yelp from Poe. "Well, it's not exactly like she had 'FIRST ORDER' tattooed on her forehead. How was I supposed to know that she was going to be stealing the machine from me?"

Earning more grumbles from the droid, Poe sighed. "So you knew when she walked in the cantina she was, huh? You saw her whole plan? Why didn't you think to tell me?"

A pause.

"Didn't think of that, now did ya BB?" The man gave another groan, looking at his surroundings once again. "I suppose we could try to catch up to her-"

Some more beeps aroused from his droid, who looked off at the direction she had come from, the staircase to the right of the cantina leading up to the markets. Beyond that, Poe assumed their dock bay was there.

"We could do that. But then we have no clue what kind of ship she came in. I don't think the First Order would be so obvious as to give away that they're here by using one of their obnoxious ships."

A sad noise sounded from the droid, to which Poe just patted little BB-8's head, gesturing to follow him to the left of the cantina.

"It's okay, BB. Let's just head back to base, I'm sure General Organa will want to hear about our little encounter. It might help the Resistance to know that the First Order is sending in spies to do their dirty work instead of the obvious and flashy show of generals and troopers."

A small chirp of excitement upon seeing the General again and going home resounded from the droid, who excitedly started to move towards where he knew the two were docked. BB was much more excited to go home to the base than Poe was, that was clear.

Poe's docking port wasn't far away from where the cantina was, the two hopping into his small X-Wing fighter ( that General Organa had barely let him use for this mission ) and flew away.

The Illenium System was only a few clicks away from the Outer Rim, so it didn't take the young man long to arrive inside of the planet system where the case was held. Looking out at the stars, all Poe could see was the damn girl's space patch on her jacket, and the small smirk that had donned her face that the constellations in the stars kept mimicking, almost mocking Poe. With a few more navigations, Poe piloted his spaceship to arrive at the Resistance base, landing his ship with a dreaded groan.

General Organa was probably going to eat him alive for his mistake.

Resistance members helped his X-Wing get freshened up with fuel as BB-8 was lowered from his droid position on the ship, Poe using the ladder to climb down back onto the runway. Looking around at his surroundings, Poe saw trouble on the horizon.

Well, for him at least.

Threepio was fast approaching him, and most of the time, wherever that golden droid went, General Organa wasn't very far behind.

"Poe Dameron." A familiar voice of reason and irritation called out from behind Threepio, revealing the General that he knew so well.

General Leia Organa.

"General." Poe walked towards her, a hesitant wince finding its way up his face. Placing his somewhat shaky hands on his hips, he tried to maintain a sense of composure in front of her. "It's nice to be back home again."

"Cut the small talk. How'd the mission go, Dameron?" Leia asked, wanting to cut to the chase and miss out on all of the little things in between. "Did you find out what that machine did?"

"Unfortunately, no." Poe seemed to be bracing for a serious scolding. "The information on the machine and the person who was supposed to give us the information never showed up."

"Then who did show up, Dameron?"

"A First Order spy."

"The First Order doesn't do spies, Dameron. Nice try." General Organa sighed, giving Poe a stern look to tell the truth. "They do flashy shoes of power when they try and obtain something, not-"

"I'm not lying, General. The spy walked into the cantina where I was waiting for the informant, and she-"

"She?" Leia questioned, a deeper look of irritation coming to her face. "You do realize the First Order trusts women about as far as their puny generals can throw them. There's no way that they decided to have a female be a spy for them."

"General, I'm not lying. Why would I lie to you about something as drastic as this?"

"I don't know, maybe because you lost the part to a girl in a cantina who flirted with you? Who was it this time, a smuggler? Bounty Hunter?" The general sighed disdainfully, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I swear, Poe, every time we send you on a mission-"

Before Poe could even come up with an argument, BB-8 decided to interject. Giving a few beeps to Threepio and Leia, the droid looked between Poe and Leia.

"Ma'am," C-3PO looked at Leia, moving his eyes to look down at the small droid in between Poe and the General. "BB-8 here says that he has proof that Mister Dameron is not lying. However, he believes it is best to reveal the information in a more enclosed space."

"I know. I heard him myself." Leia grumbled, squatting down to see BB-8. "Let's move inside to my office. That way, we won't alarm the entire Resistance to whatever the droid has on him."

The four hastily moved towards the inside of the Resistance base, making quick time of their transfer. When a lock was clicked and in place, the General turned to the droid again.

"What do you have for us, BB?" She asked the small droid, her eyes following the projection that the droid had just put up.

It was from his perspective at the cantina, waiting outside for Poe as he watched the spy from the First Order and her two accomplices walk towards the cantina. The projection was bathed in soft blue light, the hologram figures first far away.

"Smart thinking. But what's the plan Kai?" A man that Poe recognized as the one across from the girl at the bar, his voice scratchy as the hologram flickered to life, the last part (the most important part, her name, scratched out, the audio not picking it up). "It doesn't do much for us if we come out as, you know," The man paused, BB-8's recording system barely able to pick up what he said next. "First Order, and just start attacking guns ablazing."

"Simple." Space Girl shrugged, making a motion that seemed like she was unzipping her mission suit. "Women bounty hunters have a tendency for flirting while being able to get the job done. Same for the smugglers. If I just-"

"This is incredibly stupid, Princess." The other man who was her backup spoke, Poe not recognizing this man. He seemed much younger than the first accomplice, and a little bit more cocky than the elder one. Was she a captured princess? Or was it just a nickname? The young pilot wasn't too sure what he meant by that.

"Gotta say, for once in my life, I gotta agree with 4236 on this one." The first accomplice shrugged, starting his descent down the steps, taking over Space Girl for the lead. "It seems incredibly thick headed of you to not assume that you're going to get taken away by some nasty man who wants to perceive you in the wrong way."

4236. Poe would have to remember that number. It meant something, he knew it had to. Were they code names for their actual given names? Or did they mean something else?

"Oh, but I'm counting on it." The girl spoke in an almost sly tone, stepping down the staircase. She drew Poe's attention back to the hologram encounter again, BB-8 standing still as the droid watched the reactions from the three others in front of him. "What Resistance member wouldn't just love to come and sweep a 'damsel in distress!' off of her feet from the awful bounty hunters and smugglers who want to take advantage of her!" She sarcastically gave a dramatic sigh, pretend fainting over the side of the steps.

"That's... more stupid now that I've heard more about it." The first man muttered, seemingly more frustrated than the last time that he spoke.

Daring to look over at the General, Poe saw a frown coming to her face, her right hand resting just underneath her chin, contemplating what she was hearing from the hologram.

"Look, it's not like this is going to be easy for me either. But these kind of inconspicuous missions call for some unorthodox ideas. And this might be the kind that will help us find the Resistance member who's attempting to meet with a trader inside of that cantina. They're trying to figure out what they stole from the First Order, and if we get it before they figure out what it is and what it does, it's going to make our lives a lot easier when we head back to base."  The girl sighed, running a hand through her ponytail, tugging out the band so that her hair was loose.

"6978, we could be inside the cantina watching out for her. If we don't make it obvious that we're watching her, we can still keep an eye on her and make sure that she's safe. This could make the whole mission a lot easier if she can steal the item, get in, and get out without any hassle." The second accomplice pointed out, dropping yet another numerical code for the other accomplice. The question that was on Poe's mind, however, was still what those numerical codes could mean.

"So it's a plan?" Space Girl  whispered hopefully, rising from her place against the wall and bounding down the stairs to stand next to the two much taller men. Earning no sounds of complaint from her accomplices, she gave a small fist pump of victory. "Yes! Okay. I'm sure this plan will work. I'll head in the cantina first, and you two can trail in afterwards. Make sure that you're a few minutes apart, we don't want to seem overly suspicious."

"Still don't like this." The first accomplice grumbled, sounding almost father like to as he crossed his arms, arching an eyebrow at her. "You sure that everything is going to be okay? Like no random alien smuggler is going to sneak up from behind and-"

"Yes, Silas." The girl poked fun at the accomplice, earning a small chuckle from the other off on the side. "Everything will be fine. I have my blasters and knives if worse comes to worse." She showed her hidden weapons belt from underneath the worn out black leather jacket, the brown of the belt and white of the blasters easier to detect when not under the disguise of her overcoat.

Poe stood in shock as he heard the name Silas. Was she really giving away his name, or did the man have two names, one a numerical code and one real? What did all of this mean? Not to mention, the fact that she had at least five weapons on her did nothing to help Poe's worry. She was probably adept at the three knives she carried around, along with the two blasters tucked inside.

Poe should've known, as he was threatened by one of said blasters.

"It'll all be okay." Space Girl  reassured the older man, patting him on the shoulder as she slowly started to walk through the alleyways of the buildings and the pavements in between. She was following the music playing from the cantina, walking closer and closer to the droid who had been secretly recording the encounter, and the cantina inside. "I'll see you boys in a minute!" She cheekily laughed before walking up to the doors of the cantina, which slid open for her.

The hologram cut out there.

There was a silence in the room after the hologram finished, Leia's discomfort at the young girl being used as a tool for the Resistance obvious. "Dear God." She whispered, finding her seat and sitting down inside of it.

There were some beeps from BB-8 deactivated his hologram, informing the three who didn't know the information that he had inside of them.

"Ma'am-"

"I know what the droid said, Threepio. The BB unit said that whoever it was definitely of human descent, most likely somewhere from the Outer Rim from her appearance. Which means that she's from one of the planets that the First Order conquered at the beginning of their conquest." Leia sighed, trying not to look Poe in his eyes.

"You were right, kid."

"Well, so what do we do now?" Poe questioned, looking at the two droids and the General inside of the room that they were in. "The girl's obviously a threat, as she stole the machinery from me, and god knows what else she's trained to do and achieve-"

"I don't know, Dameron." Leia sighed, trying to comprehend what the plan of the Resistance would be next. "If she's out there, and she's going on missions and spying around for them with covers, who knows how many others they have."

"Well, if we know about her, why don't we try to track her down? We could have someone stationed at every outpost to try and look for her."

"Which would be futile work, Poe. We just have to wait and see where she shows up next, and if we can run some better facial recognition or learn her name the next time someone has an encounter with her." The general reasoned, looking down at the BB unit who had given her so much more information on the First Order and their plans. "It seems as if we better keep a more vigilant eye on the new rising empire and what they'll do next."

"With permission, General, I'd like to ask to be lead on this new spy case. I know it's a lot to ask, but considering that I'm the one who had the interaction with her-"

"Permission granted, Poe. I hope you've learned your lesson on handling these kind of important information missions with this Batuu incident." General Organa looked at Poe, who gave her a firm nod in return.

"I have ma'am." Poe moved to leave the general's office, determined to gain more information on the First Order's new spy and the agenda that the Space Girl had.

"Poe?"

"Yes, General Organa?"

"If you find her, bring the girl here. To me. Chances are that she hasn't ever had a choice to be a good person. Offer her the chance again the next time you see her. The hope of the rebellion might be enough to help her turn to our side."

"Will do, ma'am." Poe nodded, opening up the door to her office and walking back into the everyday chaos that the Resistance base offered. While everyone completed their usual tasks, a smile lit up on Poe's face- as he had a new one.

Find the Space Girl.

<~•~>

ruh roh ash finals are today and you didn't study, you wrote a whole chapter instead!¡!!

yes, yes I did do that, for your information.

I mean, like what else did I have to do after I finished my finals?

STUDY FOR THE NEXT ONE?

pshhh nah

if you weren't able to tell, yes, I did use a scene from last chapter to help prove something so technically, YES, I didn't write this whole chapter from scratch. but I nearly did.

we got our first look into the resistance this time around, and next chapter, we'll get back into it with Kyra and the first order!

anyways that's about it, I hope you enjoyed this one!