13 || a pilot's duty

"LISTEN TO ME VERY CAREFULLY. I'M GOING TO HELP YOU ESCAPE."

STAR DESTROYER, FIRST ORDER-

The doors to Poe's interrogation room slid open again with a resounding thud.

Every heartbeat he had seemed to pound in Poe's ears, the tension after Kylo Ren leaving his cell for a second time leaving him on the edge. "It seems you've chosen then." Ren had said to Poe back then, those words still echoing in his head again and again since he had left. "The girl dies for Skywalker and his location."

He was hoping to every single thing out in the galaxy- no, the universe, that he wouldn't find Space Girl dead in another cell by the time he got out of this hellsite.

The clicking of boots on the linoleum floor was the only indication that someone was coming in, and the Stormtrooper on guard in his cell stared at the newcomer - but not with the respect that one with higher authority would have. So if it wasn't someone who was coming to interrogate more out of him to get the location of his droid, who the hell was it?

"Ren wants the prisoner." The filtered voice of a trooper spoke abruptly, his gun tense at his side. Poe was barely able to open his eyes to crane his neck around to stare at the young trooper, whose mask was staring at his fellow trooper.

"Under whose orders?" The guard trooper asked back, and Poe could almost hear the doubt inside of that trooper's voice. He wasn't sure why it was there, exactly, but he knew for whatever reason it was there indicated that nothing good was going to come out of the situation."Ren already has the information he needs." The stormtrooper already inside of Poe's prison cell blandly stated, not barging from his place. "He got it all already, what made him want the prisoner again?"

"I didn't ask." The new trooper spoke tersely back, both of them ignoring the man who was shackled to the chair behind them. "All I know is that these orders came directly from Ren, and I don't think you want to be the one that pisses him off.  You heard what he just did to Solani, did you not? Don't want that to be you next."

Solani. That was Space Girl- wasn't it?

A worried thought flashed through Poe's mind, the idea that he wouldn't be able to save the woman who had been so vital to helping the Resistance take down the First Order brick by brick scaring him. He had promised the General ( and Space Girl herself ) that he would find her and bring her back to Resistance.

Poe could hear the audible gulp from the guard trooper, who didn't even hesitate to unshackle Poe from the chair. The sudden release of tension made Poe want to collapse forward, but somehow he was able to maintain his composure. "If Ren wants him then, he can by all means have him."

The Resistance pilot was beyond drained as the new trooper stood him up, shackling handcuffs back on him before giving a nod to the trooper on duty again. The door slid open again with the same resounding thud, the echo something that Poe would never forget.

Now was his time to escape.

Because this was all a setup from the Resistance to help him escape or a lucky opportunity. 

And he would take either.

The thudding of boots was all Poe could keep track of in the boring hallways that laid in front of him, trying to calculate some attempt to help him escape. If this was a Resistance set up, someone would be waiting for him in secret within the next few halls. If it was all just dumbass luck? Well, that would make the escape all that much harder.

But Poe didn't mind. That's what made the idea of a prison break that much more daring and exciting.

"Turn here." The trooper escorting him jabbed his gun into Poe's back, making him grunt with pain. They started to head down a tight alleyway corner, Poe confused as to what this trooper's intentions were exactly.

There was a moment of silence between the two men, Poe trying to analyze what exactly is going to come out of the situation. "What the hell is going on here?" He whispered to the trooper, confused as hell and desperate for answers. "If you're here to kill me-"

"What?" The trooper exclaimed, shaking his head. A frustrated sigh escaped the trooper's lips, not understanding how the Resistance pilot could be so stupid. "No, no, no, no. The whole thing with Ren wanting you was a ploy. I'm not even sure where he is at the moment."

"Listen very carefully, if you do as I say, I can get you out of here."  The trooper tersely spoke, his voice muffled through the mask he was wearing. The sentence he had just said, however, sent Poe reeling. So this was a potential escape. If the trooper was telling the truth, at least.

Poe stared at him a moment longer, trying to contemplate what the trooper was saying. Exactly what he said? Was he going to end up in a trash compactor or doing something even worse? "If- what?" He questioned, his brain still trying to catch up to what the man was saying.  

The trooper sighed, a hiss resounding from his mask before he pulled it off. Poe was suddenly face to face with a young man who he couldn't see being anything but a couple of years younger than him. "This is a rescue. I'm helping you escape."

"Are you with the Resistance?" That was the only real explanation as to why this trooper would be helping him. The new breed of troopers weren't clones like they used to be, instead captured from birth and conditioned. There was no motive for him to help the Resistance pilot.

"What? No! I'm helping break you out. Can you fly a TIE fighter?" The stormtrooper asked Poe, a serious look coming to his face as he whispered to the pilot. His deep brown eyes stared into Poe's, a desperate look peeking through the somewhat heroic facade the trooper had going on for him in that exact moment.

"I can fly anything." Poe answers with a cocky look in his eyes, leaning in close to the man with a small smile.  That smile quickly diminishes when he realizes who he's talking to again. "Why are you helping me escape?"

Poe could see the trooper hesitate for a moment, trying to think of a valid answer to his question. "Because it's the right thing to do." The trooper fibbed, giving a small shrug as he stared back out at the hallway, seeing no one there.

"You need a pilot." The realization hit Poe quickly, a laugh of disbelief escaping his lips before he could stop it. If this stormtrooper wanted to leave so desperately, maybe he could swing this in his favor. He wouldn't be able to leave without Poe, which meant he had the upper hand.

"I need a pilot." The storm trooper confirmed, his head hanging down in almost embarrassment and shame. He quickly looked up again when he heard Poe laugh, seeing the man nodding, almost confirming that he would help him escape the First Order.

"We're gonna do this." Poe said confidently, the odds already spinning in his favor as his plan started to formulate inside of his mind. "We're gonna do this, but we're going to have to do a few things before we hightail it out of here."

"Yeah?" The trooper's eyes lit up with hope, the idea of escaping from the hellish place where he had been raised exciting him. "What do I have to do in order to get you out of this First Order base?" He asked, unsure of what would still be keeping the Resistance pilot on the Star Destroyer ship.

"We're gonna have to jailbreak another prisoner off of this ship."

That made the stormtrooper step away from Poe in confusion. That- that made absolutely no sense. "There's only one other prisoner on this ship, and it's-" He stopped for a moment, his mind answering the question of who Poe Dameron wanted to jailbreak. "No! No. Absolutely not. You're telling me that you want to break Ren's personal weapon out of here? No."

"She's one of the most important informats to the Resistance. She's been helping us get information about the new Star Killer base for years, along with new technology that the First Order is making." Poe explained, stepping closer to the rebel stormtrooper again. "You want me to help you get out of here? You gotta get her out too."

"But-  that's Solani. Kylo Ren and the First Order probably have so many guards surrounding her that we'd have no chance of escaping with her." The trooper protested, trying to get Poe to rethink his rationale on trying to break out the woman. But when he saw the look in the man's eyes that told him that he wasn't budging, he gave up arguing.

"Alright, Resistance pilot. How are we going to do this then?"

A devilish grin grew wider on Poe's face as his plan soon quickly fell into place. Each piece was like one that was part of a jigsaw puzzle, slowly clicking together until it was complete. "I'm so glad that you asked."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

SILENCE WAS the only thing that reverberated in Kyra's mind. Everything felt strange now, her head pounding at the thought that it was her fault that the Resistance wasn't going to be able to get the map to Skywalker before the First Order did. The destruction of the Resistance, when it inevitably came, would be her fault.

The room around her had changed now, and Kyra had realized that. Some stupid trooper had broken the door open to her room, making the door open  just a crack. No one had bothered to come by yet, probably because of the fact that all of them assumed that she wouldn't even bother trying to escape. She could hear the faint conversations as the daily life aboard the Star Destroyer base continued as per usual, hearing faint flashes of conversations and the stomping of boots against the dark floors of the base.

The sounds inside of the room seemed to echo around her, everything confusing her as she tried to get accustomed to her partial loss of hearing. She tried to adjust her position to strain herself to hear everything around her better, but only ended up whacking her injured body against the chair. Trying to keep herself from losing her composure even further in that moment, Kyra only let out a hiss of pain, trying to carefully move back to her original position.

"What the hell are we even doing?" She was barely able to hear someone whisper, a hasty voice muffled inside of a Stormtrooper helmet all she could hear. The person was passing by her corridor in the hallway, their footsteps stopping suddenly in front of her interrogation room.

That was interesting.

She thought that the only person coming back to her cell, ever, would be Ren. And even then it would be to finish her off or try another attempt to pick apart her brain with a metaphorical sledgehammer, destroying all the walls and facades she had put up for the First Order for years yet again.

Keeping quiet, her eyes shut as to focus on what she heard outside, the familiar beeps of someone typing something into a keypad could be heard, before the door slowly shuttered open. The awkward slow thuds of the door mixed with the awkward ( or so she assumed ) trooper outside made Kyra want to cringe already.

There were two troopers inside of her room, both of which immediately stood at attention when the new person came into the room. Curious, Kyra cracked open her eyes, seeing two people come into the room. The trooper was visible, but there was someone else there- someone in a general's outfit. She couldn't make out who it was- but she knew that whoever it was meant nothing good.

There was a moment of silence as the trooper and general stared at the two guards. It seemed to go on forever, until Kyra arched an eyebrow of unamusement at both of the parties. "You two going to talk about what the hell is going on here, or..."

This startled the trooper accompanying the guard, almost shocking him back into whatever state he was in. "We're here for a prisoner exchange." The trooper spoke, a nervous underlying tone hidden in his voice. Who was he nervous about... Kyra or the guards? If it was Kyra, she was going to laugh. Because she was probably the least of his worries at the moment.

"Ren wants the prisoner moved?"

"No." The general spoke, up, stepping towards the light. It took a moment for Kyra to register who exactly it was, half of their face shadowed by the poor lighting inside of the room. But when she realized who it was, it made Kyra's eyes widen- because it was no general.

It was Poe Dameron, acting to be a First Order general.

That idiot.

"The Resistance does."

Within seconds, Poe had taken the accompanying trooper's blaster, shooting both of the guards. The trooper he was with then rushed to the panel that controlled Kyra's interrogation chair, the latches unclamping from around her arms and legs. It felt like a huge pressure was relieved from her, and she sighed in relief.

Poe rushed to her side, checking to see that she was there and still alive. There was a small and weary smile from him, the man beat up and battered himself. "Gotta say, this is not how I imagined I'd find you within the First Order." He laughed, holding out his hand to help Kyra out of the chair.

She took his hand, feeling a small bit of warmth spread from their contact. Kyra didn't notice, however, as when she took a step out of the chair, all she felt was pain, the girl crying out and almost falling to the ground. Luckily, the Resistance pilot was able to catch her, his hands being placed carefully on her shoulders, nervous to touch her as he tried to settle her on the ground.

"How bad are your injuries?" Poe tried to assess the situation, realizing that Kyra had barely made it out of her interrogations by the skin of her teeth. He could see burns on the right side of her face, and when he brushed her hair back- all he could see was burned skin.

Ren had sliced her ear clean off with a lightsaber.

"I think you can tell that quite a bit of damage was done to me." Kyra whispered, grabbing his hand away from her hair, wincing with the motion. She tried to tuck her hair back over her injury, attempting to not make a big deal about it. Trying to keep somewhat of a maintained composure, she squeezed his hand reassuringly. "But it's nothing I can't handle."

"Space Girl, you almost collapsed." Poe protested, something inside of him feeling a sort of passion to stay beside her side and make sure that she was alright and safe before they tried anything. "If that's any sign of what condition you're in-"

"While I hate to agree with- uh- Solani down there," The trooper interrupted the interaction between Poe and Kyra, seeming a little too nervous about just everything that they're doing ( which was a problem in Kyra's eyes- no escape came with an unconfident confidante). "But we have to go. Soon. It's not going to take very long for these troopers to have to send in a report, and then they're going to realize they're dead." 

"See? We have to leave, Poe." Kyra sighed, trying to give him a look that showed that she could handle this. "We don't really have another option at this point." She whispered, speaking the truth that Poe was so scared of.

Poe gave a sigh, running a hand anxiously through his hair matted with sweat and blood, instantly regretting that decision as soon as he did it. The action knocked off the little hat he had stolen when he had stolen the rest of the outfit. "I hate to do this but I guess we have no choice."

"We don't." Kyra confirmed, picking up Poe's hat off of the ground, every movement of hers slow and cautious as to not hurt herself any further. She placed it properly on his head, adjusting it to fit the unruly curls that popped out of the front of his head. The action made Poe smile a little, which Kyra liked. It made her smile a little too, offering her some hope in the middle of a shitty situation.

"So, what do we have to do?"

"First? We gotta get all of us out of this prison cell." Poe pointed out the obvious, carefully standing up, making sure that Kyra didn't fall when he stopped supporting her on one shoulder. Seeing that she could sit straight, Poe offered his hand again, helping her get up with two hands instead of one.

"And then?"

"Then, we steal a TIE fighter." The trooper with Poe spoke, moving to stand beside the duo. He could see the almost doubtful look on Kyra's face, the trooper immediately picking up that she thought the TIE fighter wasn't the most discreet getaway ship. "It's the closest thing to this area of the base, as much as the mock civilian transports would do us help."

"Fair." Kyra shrugged, heaving herself up to stand again, seeing the world spin for a moment before she finally gained her balance. Stars bounced at the back of her eyes, but they quickly faded as she shook her head. She was quickly able to gain her composure again, dismissing the worried look that Poe gave her with another small smile. This time, however, it wasn't the soft smile that Poe had seen in the past few minutes.

It was that devilish smile that he was so used to.

"So what the hell are we waiting for? Let's break out of this hellhole."

<~•~>

sorry this took me a week to get out haha 😅

if you've seen what I've been doing on here recently, I got into graphics! I've been making trailers and some vector covers / manips all week, so I kinda forgot to allot time to write. but now I have!

this nice little chapter popped out because I finally had time for it!!

I'm  so excited to share what I have coming next for all of you, as we're almost to the halfway point of this book! which is actually amazing!

alright I think that's everything from me, I hope you enjoyed!

see you in the next one!