16 || we're "with the resistance"

"DON'T WORRY. WE'RE NOT HERE TO HURT YOU."

JAKKU, WESTERN REACHES, INNER RIM-

Kyra immediately took a hard right as soon as she spoke, her feet skidding in the sand. There was no other thought in her mind in that moment other than escaping the sort of intimidating girl with the staff. If that girl was told by her droid that Kyra had a nice bounty on her head if she was returned to the First Order- well, then she could kiss the rest of her days in the galaxy goodbye. Not caring to look back at where the girl was charging, Kyra just kept running, able to weave her way through the market stalls and different places inside of the outpost. She started to shove through different market stalls, the surprised yelps of the people just trying to clean up their scavenges for the day following her.

Hoping to slow down the girl, Kyra knocked over some jugs she saw on the table to the left of her as she continued running, not caring to look behind to even see if she was the one being trailed. There was a moment in which she made it back inside the marketplace again, making a risky turn to the left, going around some roaster thing. She wasn't sure what it was, exactly, and quite frankly, she didn't care. All she wanted to do was get the hell off of this planet as soon as she found the droid and Finn.

Speaking of Finn, she needed to find him and regroup, otherwise Kyra would be alone in the middle of a random desert planet. And she was not about to lose another person on this goddamn Western Rim plant.

Frantically looking around for Finn, hoping that he hadn't been lost inside of the marketplace and been taken down by the girl, Kyra didn't notice that the scavenger girl was right in front of her. With one calculated hit of her staff, Kyra went crashing down, falling straight on her behind with a wince.

"In retrospect, the fact that you were probably going after me was obvious." Kyra winced, the rapid speed at which she fell making all of her other injuries more prominent at the moment. Her pain screamed at her, making her let out a groan of pain. "I probably have a bounty out on my head and everything too, so that probably wouldn't help." She grumbled, propping herself up to see who exactly had caught her.

Looking up, she saw the staff pointed straight at her, a girl who looked no younger than 20 staring down at her. The girl definitely looked like she knew the place, and had on ragged clothing. Finn had made her seem like she was a hellbent, when in actuality, she was just a kid. However the look that she gave Kyra, was one that was rather threatening. For the young kid, at least. "What's your hurry?"

"Well, when my friend says that you're charging straight on at the both of us, what do you expect me to do?" Kyra retorted back, rubbing her butt in an attempt to make it less sore. "You want me to get barrelled over?" She fired out, sarcastically rolling her eyes in an attempt to make her seem less butt hurt about the whole situation.

"Well-" The girl stopped, seeing the reasoning behind why she would run. Shaking her head, the scavenger tried to keep a straight face as she continued to threaten Kyra.  "Nonetheless, the droid said that you stole something. In these parts, we don't deal with thieves."

"The droid?"

Then, almost as if it was on cue, there was a whir of a droid coming by the young scavenger girl, and Kyra turned her head to see a familiar little BB unit roll up behind her. There was a moment of disbelief as Kyra stared at the droid, then the  scavenger girl, then back down to the droid.

"You mean the BB unit that I've known for four years of my life told you to attack me." Kyra spoke slowly, looking back up at the girl, who paused for a moment. The silence was all the confirmation that she needed to understand that the droid hadn't told the girl the full story of who she was, and Kyra gave a groan of exasperation before giving a withering look at BB-8.

"What the hell, BB?" Kyra hissed at the droid, the little BB unit not responding, just taking out his little taser like weapon and shocking her with it. "Ow!" She yelped, almost wanting to smack the droid. "You know who I am, you little shithead."

Then why are you wearing Poe's jacket? BB-8 whirred back in response, tilting his little head at her in response. There was a pause, almost not allowing Kyra to answer before the droid spoke again. And why would you even show up here? Are you on another mission this time?

"Wait- mission?" The scavenger girl scrunched her face up in confusion, slowly dropping her staff. "And how do you two know each other? The droid said that where he came from is classified. And that you're wearing his owner's jacket. How-"

"Long story." Kyra shook her head, trying to dismiss the girl. "Important things include that I'm not on a mission, BB. I was found out on Tatooine and taken back to the First Order. I'm sure you can assume what happened to me from there." She gave the droid a look that tried to convince BB that she was on the droid's side. "And Poe helped me escape."

So then where is he now? The droid beeped back at her, worry evident in his small little warbling tone. Kyra could tell that he was antsy for a response. But she couldn't find the voice to tell the droid what had happened. She couldn't do that to him. But she had to tell him.

"He-" She stopped, her voice slightly cracking under the weight of the sadness in her tone. "Poe didn't make it with us. Our TIE fighter crashed in the desert when we were on our way back to try and find you, BB-8." There was a pause, sad chirps coming from BB-8 as he mourned his master. There was a sort of sorrow in the air for a moment, Kyra breaking it when she spoke again. "Finn and I barely made our way to this marketplace before we were accosted by your little scavenger friend over here."

Finn? BB-8 questioned, nudging Kyra as if to tell her to say more. Before she could even speak, the man himself came running over to where the scavenger stood, finding Kyra on the ground talking to the droid and the woman who had just threatened her.

"What the-" Finn started, confused at the scene he had just stumbled upon. "What the hell is going on here, Kai? I came over to try and help you get out of a sticky situation and I see you getting comfortable on the floor and having a conversation with a BB-oh." He stopped, turning his head to not so discreetly whisper at her. "Is he the one we're looking for?"

"Yes, you knucklehead." Kyra sighed, wanting to smack the back of his head in an almost older sister like way, exasperated that he hadn't put the pieces together yet. "And that droid was just trying to ask me a question, so let me finish."

"Alright, alright." Finn threw his hands up in surrender, familiar with the tone that Kyra was giving him. He had learned rather quickly in their walk across the desert that she wasn't one to take any bullshit, and when she said something to you- you did it.

"So... are you two with the Resistance?" The scavenger asked, confused as to what she saw happening in the scene in front of her. It seemed as if the two were familiar with the droid that belonged to the Resistance, but one could never be too safe.

"With the Resistance?"

"Yeah, we're with the Resistance." Finn interrupted Kyra's sentence, giving her a look to play along with what she was saying. "Well, I am, officially. She isn't yet." There was a look from the scavenger girl to explain more. "Kyra here was an inside agent within the First Order. She betrayed them to start feeding information to the Resistance. I was on a mission to help break her and her associate, Poe Dameron out."

"I've never met Resistance members before." The scavenger girl commented, an almost starstruck look in her eyes after Finn had explained the "majestic tale" of both of the former First Order members. After that moment, she studied both Finn and Kyra, almost expecting something grand to happen when she did.

There was a skeptical look from BB-8 that the droid gave Kyra, and he didn't buy the story that Finn was putting down. Well, the man's side of the story, at least. He knew Kyra's was true. Kyra just rolled her eyes, indicating for the droid to just play along with whatever antics that the young and naive ex stormtrooper was going along with. "While I appreciate you telling my life story, we really don't have the time."

"Why? Is it because BB's secret mission?" The scavenger girl questioned, raising more questions that Kyra really didn't want to answer. "He said that he has to get back to your base." Her eyes flitted down to the droid, who broke eye contact from Kyra and looked back up at her.

"Apparently he has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker." Finn told the young scavenger girl in an attempt to make himself seem more Resistance-like. Kyra gave a groan at the fact that he was revealing this information, standing up and smacking him on the back of his head like she had wanted to do a few moments before.

"Among other things that he has stored in his drive, yes. BB-8 has a map that very well might lead to Luke Skywalker. But we can't just keep sharing that information." Kyra hissed through the back of her teeth, Finn still rubbing his head from her smack.

Interrupting the conversation, BB-8 chirped out some alarming news to both Kyra and the scavenger girl. You know, I'd love to continue this conversation, but there are currently two stormtroopers about to find us and most likely kill us. The droid not so optimistically pointed out, both of the girls turning to Finn.

"There's been a change in plans." The scavenger girl immediately stated, looking nervous as she saw the two troopers move towards them. "The First Order is here, and they're headed this way to come and take us."

Kyra just sighed, pulling her blaster out of her jacket pocket. Turning so that she was hidden from fire from the troopers behind a market stand beam, she immediately whirled around and fired two shots, barely even looking as the two troopers fell to the ground dead. There were some shocked noises that came from that general direction, probably just common Jakku people surprised to see two stormtroopers on the ground out of nowhere.  "Well, now we have two less things to worry about." She turned back to the group, both Finn and the scavenger girl speechless.

"Where the hell did you get a blaster?" The scavenger girl questioned, Kyra giving another exasperated sigh as she gestured for Finn to follow her. Kyra quickly grabbed the girl's hand, wrenching her away from the place where they were in the marketplace. There was a startled yelp from the girl, not expecting to be yanked and suddenly thrown into the middle of a chase scene.

"I would choose not to question anything in the next few minutes, okay?" Kyra dodged into another tent, seeing another patrol of two troopers on the other side of the stalls. "Shit!" She exclaimed, aiming for the two troopers on the other side, hitting one and barely missing the other. "We just have to get out of here! BB-8, c'mon!"

The droid gave an almost exasperated look at Kyra before following her, biting out a small dig at her before the chaos truly began to unfold. Why is it with you it always seem like I get into the most trouble?

"Can it, BB." Kyra gritted out, hearing the noise of blaster fire in retaliation to her own. Still grasping the scavenger girl's hand, Kyra dared to look back for a moment, seeing the two troopers that had been back up for the ones she had killed hot on their trail. They had missed about every shot they had fired against the three and the droid, but the mess that they were leaving in the marketplace was awful.

"I know how to run without you holding my hand!" The young woman exclaimed, wrenching her hand out of Kyra's grasp. That earned her an irritated sigh from Kyra as the two continued to run, BB-8 and Finn not too far behind them.

"Then run faster! We have to get out of this place as soon as we can!" Kyra yelled back, trying to keep her eyes strictly on the path in front of her. She was pretty sure that there were stormtroopers everywhere, and she didn't want to get involved in that mess any more than she already had been. There was a sort of guilt that rose within her because of what she had done a couple of seconds earlier for her survival. Stormtroopers were just the drones that followed the First Order, but in that moment, it didn't make them any less dangerous.

"Kyra!" Finn hollered, causing her to look sharply to her left to where he had caught up with her. The kid had learned quickly on what side she now favored, with one ear being missing. Kyra had to give him credit for that. "They caught up to us!" He yelled, getting more nervous as they ran. Looking a little beyond Finn, Kyra saw the troopers come through the stall to the left, and she grabbed his hand and took a hard right.

"Let's move!" Kyra yelled, the pressure to escape increasing now that she knew that the stormtroopers were close on her tail. "We can't let them get the droid- or us, for that matter!" She added, her mind racing as she tried to think of viable options for escape.

"Stay close!" The scavenger girl hollered, quickly taking the lead in front of Kyra and Finn. BB-8 whirred quickly behind her, causing the two rebel First Order members to pick up their pace, following her as they weaved their way through the outpost's many stalls. It didn't take long for them to tuck into a stall, allowing the three to catch their breaths.

"They're shooting at all of us." The girl panted, grabbing a hold of a support beam inside of the stall, still gripping her staff fiercely with her other hand. "They're shooting at all of us? Why are they shooting at all of us?"

"You're marked now. They've seen you with the two of us." Finn blandly stated, searching around the abandoned stall for some form of weapon. The clatter of old scrap parts indicated to Kyra that he found none, the young man giving a sigh of frustration. "Why aren't there any more damn blasters in this area?"

"From what the kid asked earlier, it sounds like they're few and far between out here." Kyra remarked, looking down at the parts Finn was inspecting. "Though there is a good dagger in there." She picked it up and twirled it, a small smile lighting up on her face. "Take the blaster. It'll be better for a far range."

"What about you? You're probably a much better shot than I am. You probably trained much more than I ever did." Finn took the blaster from Kyra's hand, confused as to why she would give away such a rare weapon in the desert of Jakku.

"Just take the damn blaster." Kyra insisted, hoping that the young man would just take her offer. It allowed her to get rid of a weapon that she would probably use to kill more, and it also allowed for her to have a weapon that worked much better with her combat skills- up close and hand to hand.

Pivoting to see the young scavenger, Kyra saw her talking with BB-8, hearing clips of their conversation about if the droid was okay or not. She had to admit, being able to hear things from one side of her body made everything a little bit more challenging, as she couldn't hear the familiar sounds of a blaster or the roar of an ion engine as clearly.

Wait.

An ion engine-

"Everybody, quiet!" Kyra yelled, silencing the chatter between BB-8 and the scavenger girl, and Finn;s loud ruckus in the scavenging bin. And there it was- the increasingly loud and familiar roar of an ion engine. That could only mean one thing, and that was that the First Order had ordered an airstrike.

"Kyra is that-"

"Yeah Finn. That's a TIE fighter." Kyra answered his question before he could even finish. She gave a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment in frustration. "Just when I had thought that we had finally escaped the First Order-"

"Kyra, we have to go!" Finn abruptly took her hand, causing Kyra to yelp with shock as she was torn out of the tent. The scavenger girl and BB-8 followed close behind, all of them running out into the desert to come face to face with low swooping TIE fighters.

There was the familiar sound of the fire of lasers from the TIE fighter in the back of Kyra's mind, and it wasn't long before a blast struck the ground right behind them. The explosion rocked all of them, Kyra, Poe, and the scavenger girl going flying.

"This was not how I was expecting this day to go." Kyra groaned, lying face down on her back for a moment before BB-8 nudged her, trying to quickly signify that she had to get up. Gathering herself up with a soft wince, Kyra turned her head to see the young girl helping Finn up.

Well, that was new.

And unexpected.

Looking over at the two of them, Kyra made sure that the both of them were okay before scouting the air to see where the TIE fighters were. "If we're going to make it out of here alive, we gotta go!" Kyra's tone elevated with every word she spoke, seeing that the TIE fighters were circling around and getting close to them again.

"Follow me." The young scavenger girl jacked her thumb in the direction that she was hoping to lead them all, taking off running in an instant. Kyra, unsure of what else to do but follow her, picked up her speed and started running with her, quickly glancing behind her to make sure that Finn and BB-8 were still behind her.

The sounds of explosions echoed behind the group as they ran, many of the firing shots from the TIE fighters a near miss as they continued to run. They neared the edge of the outpost, a gate and rimmed fence signaling that they were no longer at the center of the marketplace.

"Hey kid, where are you taking us?!" Kyra hollered over the loud roar of ion engines and the blasts of sand that were being exploded by near misses from the First Order. "Because I would really like assurance at this point that we get out of here alive!"

"We can't outrun them, so we're going to go to that quadjumper!" The girl pointed out the spacecraft that she was gesturing at, the ship coming into sight for Kyra. "That's honestly the only way I see us getting out of here alive!"

"What about that ship?" Finn yelled, pointing out the much larger freighter ship to the side of where they were currently running, earning a scoff from both Kyra and Rey as they continued to run towards the quadjumper.

"That one's garbage!"

The roar of a TIE fighter swooping down in front of them made Kyra stop in her tracks, already guessing what was going to have to come next. And exactly what she thought would happen then happened, the quadjumper in front of them being blasted into smithereens by the TIE fighters encircling them.

"The garbage is gonna have to do!" Kyra exclaimed, changing her course of movement as she gave a quick look to the scavenger girl, who nodded at her. "We gotta get moving before they blast this ship too!" She exclaimed, picking up the pace a bit.

Explosions following them as they ran to the ship, Kyra quickly ran up the ramp, the stomping of the girl and Finn following her quickly after. Whirling around, she heard the frantic beeps of BB-8 telling her to wait up, the girl pausing to catch her breath and let the droid roll into the ship. "We can't leave without you, BB-8." She laughed, squatting down to rub the droid's belly to reassure him before turning to run down the somewhat long hallway to the cockpit, where she already saw the scavenger girl making herself comfortable.

"You pilot?" Kyra asked, shocked to see the girl start to press all the proper buttons for the takeoff sequence. She stopped herself, seeing the girl bang one of the sticky buttons inside of the ship with frustration until it finally beeped, the light turning on.

"You do too?"

"They teach you some stuff at the First Order." Kyra remarked, settling into the co-pilot seat with ease. Helping with the sequence, Kyra pressed all of the mandatory buttons to help start the engines and get them the hell off of the planet.

"Can't say I'm surprised. Your Resistance friend seems rather comfortable in the gunner position down there." The girl commented, her head nodding to where Finn probably sat, ready to start firing at will. "He said he's a good shot. I just hope he's right."

"Let's hope he is." Kyra muttered, flicking the last switch to help the girl take off. "If we're going to be co-piloting this ship together, it's going to be a lot easier to call each other by our names instead of just 'hey you.'" She commented, her eyes turning to stare at the scavenger. "What's your name, kid?"

"Rey."

"Well, Rey, it's nice to meet you." Kyra smiled, leaning back in her chair to try and get herself a bit more relaxed as the engine started to roar to life underneath them. "Kyra Ceydea. I'd shake your hand, but I'd say that we have a planet to escape and the First Order to evade."

"Yeah, that seems like the first priority of the day." Rey huffed, trying to catch her breath for a moment. "You ever fly one of these things?" She asked, hoping that the answer would be a yes. She needed all the help she could get in this situation.

"Something similar to it, yeah. But if we're going to make it anywhere in the galaxy, I'm going to have to have you start piloting, Rey." Kyra pointed to where she would be able to steer the ship, watching the girl's hands wrap themselves around the steering device. "You ready for this kid?"

"Ready." Rey nodded at Kyra, a somewhat confident looking forming on her face. There seemed to be a sort of calm nature that washed over the girl as she took a deep breath in, her eyes focusing on the sights in front of her as the engine roared.

"Let's get the hell out of here then." Kyra smiled a devilish smile, leaning back to look at BB-8, who had just rolled into the cockpit. "BB, you might want to strap in, because we're going on a ride." She laughed, turning back around to focus on her co-pilot duties.

I have a bad feeling about this. The droid chirped at her, giving a dejected groan as he applied his cables to the walls. BB-8 knew that he had to be prepared for any "fancy flying" when Kyra flashed him a devilish smirk with a glint in her eyes that the droid had only seen in Poe's eyes before.

"It'll be fine." Kyra dismissed, feeling the ship slowly rise, the freighter making an abrupt turn to get the hell out of the Jakku outpost. "See? This is going to be a piece of cake." She laughed, turning to Rey for a moment as the young scavenger got control of the ship, the bottom of the freighter clipping the gate that the gangly group had just run through to get on the ship.

"Now let's make our grand escape from the First Order and this stupid planet."

<~•~>

was I not supposed to post this until tomorrow morning? yes.

do I have no self control? that's another yes, and is the reason that you're getting this update late tonight.

my apologies

anyways, this chapter was probably one of the most fun chapters I've had the privilege of writing so far. and from what I've heard, a lot of you are enjoying the story! I'm very grateful for all of the positive feedback y'all gave me in the last chapter about the more serious topic I had to discuss, and I really want to thank you for that.

also, small note : bb-8 and what he says will be in italics, and Kyra can understand him and I figure it gives better context. I'll probably go back in and add what he says to Poe from the earlier chapters because there are gonna be a lot of bb-8 and Kyra conversations through this all and I do not want to write one sided conversations. also let me just say, bb-8 and Kyra's relationship? >>

also Kyra, Rey, and Finn will be a fun dynamic to write and I am so damn excited for it, Kyra sees them as her little brother and sister by the end of this 🥺🥺

okay I think that's mainly everything from me this chapter, sorry for the semi long author's note

thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!