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The blaster bolt came out of nowhere.
One second, Poe was piloting the skiff through this godsforsaken desert, dodging everything the First Order threw at them as Finn returned fire, the next, his arm erupted in a blaze of white hot pain.
The skiff jerked and tipped as Poe’s hand left the stick, an involuntary movement to grab his injured arm. But now wasn’t the time to nurse his wounds or feel sorry for himself, not with the unforgiving sand of Pasaana rising up to meet them.
If he had been any less of a pilot (I can fly anything), there would have been no hope. As it was, the skiff bounced off the sand hard enough to knock Poe’s teeth together before he could right it, pain lancing through his injured arm as he used both hands to bring it level.
A shout from Finn drew his attention to the back of the skiff as he put on a burst of speed, the other man grabbing on to a rail for dear life. “A little warning next time!”
“Next time I get shot, I’ll try for a smoother landing!” he shouted over the roar in his ears.
“That’s all I’m asking!”
Poe laughed, the adrenaline finally kicking in. His focus narrowed to two points and two points alone: flying this thing as fast and as far and he could and finding where the kriff Rey had run off to.
He’d nearly gone with her when she realized who was after them and leapt off the skiff to buy them more time. Of course, he probably wouldn’t have landed nearly as gracefully as she did in the hot sand, barely a second passing before she was off and running. And now she was facing that asshole Kylo Ren alone, somewhere in the neverending sand between mountains.
But Rey could take care of herself. He had more important things to worry about, like getting the rest of them out of this alive.
Poe looked behind them, the speeders gaining with each passing second. Those fucking troopers just would not give up. If only they could get them alone, meet them on their terms instead of being chased.
That gave him an idea.
“Hold on!” he shouted, slamming the stick as far left as it would go while hitting the brakes. The skiff swung wildly, the first two speeder bikes splitting off to avoid a collision.
Finn, always on the same wavelength, saw what he was trying to do. “Steady, steady.”
Poe did as instructed, leveling them out with a grunt until they were perpendicular to the three remaining troopers. Finn targeted the fuel cells of the lead two with a couple of well-placed shots, the ensuing explosions taking the third out with it.
And then there were two.
They made a wide turn at the base of the nearest mountain, plenty of time for Finn to take them out one after the other.
Finn let out a whooping cheer, Poe answering in kind as he started back the way they came. There wasn’t much time for celebration. They still had to find Rey.
One type of panic was quickly replaced with another, thoughts of where Rey could be and who she was fighting pumping his system full of adrenaline.
“Where is she?” asked Finn, coming up behind him.
Good question, one Poe didn’t actually have an answer to.
He opened his mouth to tell Finn that, when the tell-tale scream of ion engines reached his ears.
“Listen,” he said instead, waiting for it to dawn on Finn. Poe watched as the smile spread across Finn’s face.
“Let’s go get our girl.”
Didn’t have to tell him twice.
Following the screams as they bounced around the rocky cliffs proved slightly more difficult than originally thought. Echoes led them to one dead end and then another before they saw it.
“There!” shouted Finn, pointing to the same dark shadow Poe had seen.
A fancy new TIE fighter - Poe couldn’t help but admire the red accents around the cockpit - was coming back around, making a wide arch over the mountains before dropping back down to the sand.
Ren, it had to be Kylo Ren.
Poe put on an extra burst of speed as they found an opening in the mountains, spitting them out into a wide valley just as the TIE started to make its approach.
At the far end of the canyon stood a person, no more than a speck at this distance. Poe’s heart thundered in his chest as he brought them closer and closer.
Finn was at his side in an instant. “That’s not…”
The speck materialized, white clothes practically glowing in the harsh light of the sun. The figure faced the TIE as it barrelled toward them, staring it down with a calm certainty Poe couldn’t claim.
“Rey,” Poe answered as she ignited the lightsaber in her hand, spinning around so her back faced the incoming fighter.
The TIE closed in on her.
As if she’d been waiting for a sign, she took off in the opposite direction without warning, the TIE gaining on her with every step.
“Shit, she can’t outrun that, can she?”
It was a rhetorical question, one Poe couldn’t have answered even if he wanted to, not when all of his considerable flying ability was concentrated on trying to get to Rey before Ren. But it was no use, the top speed of their shitty little skiff had nothing on the raw power of Kylo Ren’s personal TIE fighter.
They watched in horror as Ren closed in on her, 100 meters, then 50, then 10, until…
Rey planted her feet, arms swinging to propel her up, up, up, flipping until her feet were above her head and the still-ignited saber made contact with the TIE. Metal rent as saber met TIE, Rey dragging it the full length of the cockpit.
It hit the sand with an unholy crash, sliding for 10 meters before coming to a stop as Rey’s feet touched the ground.
She landed like a cat, light on her feet and slightly crouched, as if she had just hopped over a twig in her path and not jumped (and obliterated) a TIE fighter at full speed.
Rey stood and watched with her lightsaber at the ready as the transparisteel viewport exploded outwards, the Supreme Leader attempting to scramble out of the now-extinct craft. So intent was Rey on her foe, she didn’t notice the skiff until it was practically next to her.
“Need a lift?” asked Poe, extending his good arm to help her up.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure she’d take it, torn between getting away and finishing what she’d started here. With a long look toward Ren, she accepted Poe’s help, both knowing that she didn’t need it to pull herself onto the skiff.
She embraced Finn first, taking Poe back to Crait and the first time he really saw her, surrounded by light and floating rocks as she saved all their asses. Finn had run into her arms then, too. But unlike Crait, Poe was next in line this time, trying not to wince as Rey squeezed him tight.
Not much got past Rey.
“You’re hurt,” she said, eyes roving over him head to toe before zeroing in on his arm.
He gave her the same once-over. “And somehow you aren’t.”
“Poe, we need to dress the wound. Do we have any bacta?”
He brushed off her concern. “It’s just a graze. Believe me, I’ve had worse.”
“Uh, guys? This is heartwarming and all, but we’re not quite out of the woods yet.”
Poe followed Finn’s gaze across the canyon, where Kylo had finally worked his way out of the TIE and was walking toward them - menacingly as usual - lightsaber ignited and dragging on the ground in the most dramatic way possible.
Rey stiffened next to him, like she was reconsidering her decision to leave Ren on the field.
Definitely time to go.
“I think it’s time to get out of here before we end up with more company.” Poe was back at the stick before Rey had a chance to do something stupid, leaving Kylo and his dramatics behind them.
They needed some place to catch their breath, plot their next move. Poe’s eyes scanned the horizon.
As if reading his mind, Rey pointed to an outcropping of rocks, big enough to hide both them and the skiff from prying eyes. “There.”
With a practiced ease, Poe navigated them under the overhang. A collective sigh of relief went up.
Despite the assurances he made Rey, the blaster wound pulsed with each beat of his heart. Poe’s arm gave an unholy throb as the adrenaline started to ebb away, leaving him shaky and exhausted. Without quite realizing what he was doing, he slid down to the floor, curling the offending limb closer to his body.
“Poe?” Finn’s voice sounded concerned, even with Poe’s eyes squeezed shut.
Rey was beside him in an instant, her hands soft on the tender flesh of his arm. “Let me look at it.”
Her fingers felt like ice as she probed the hot, raw skin surrounding the wound. Poe took a sharp breath when pain lanced down to his elbow, jerking slightly.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, reaching for a canteen.
He half expected steam to come off the wound when she dumped some water on it. She looked to Finn somewhere over his shoulder. “No bacta?”
“No bacta.”
A brisk nod, then she turned her attention back to Poe. “May I?” She pointed to the scarf around his neck.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna…” Finn edged his way off the skiff, pointing toward the edge of the overhang, “keep an eye out. For Ren. And things.” He jumped the short distance to the ground and promptly disappeared from sight.
Poe was glad for the privacy as Rey unwound the soft, olive fabric inch by inch, those wide hazel eyes never leaving his own. They looked murky in the shade, like the dark mud on Yavin 4 after a rain. He could have sworn it was one of his favorite colors.
“This should keep it clean until we can dress the wound,” she said, wrapping the scarf around his arm once, twice, three times before tying an easy knot. “There, all better.”
He flexed his arm, pretending not to feel the pain. “Like new.”
Her face was so close to his that he could count the freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. One breath passed and then a second, Rey’s fingers still lingering on the knot of fabric just to the left of his bicep.
So many words between them went unsaid these days, he’d learned to read and speak between the ones that did.
So when he asked, “You good?” out loud, what he was really saying was: How are you holding up after being forced into yet another fight with your Force-bonded nemesis? I know that thoughts of facing him keep you up at night.
And when she answered, “I’m fine,” what he heard was: As good as can be expected when I know this won’t be the last time I have to face him in the coming days.
His hand closed over hers where it was still fiddling with the knot. “You know, that was quite the show you put on out there.” You are so strong and amazing and you scare the shit out of me and I still can’t believe you’d ever give me the time of day.
A blush crept across her cheeks. “That’s not me, that’s the Force.” This power seems to have chosen me for something, dark or light, and it scares the shit out of me, too.
“That’s not how the Force works.” The Force doesn’t get to decide who you are. You choose who you want to be.
She looked down, a half-smile on her face. “Well, maybe you just haven’t seen what I can do with it yet.” There was no subtext, just a glint in her eye as she reached up and smoothed the collar of his khaki shirt, hand lingering where fabric met skin.
He could hear the hitch in Rey’s breath as he leaned into her touch, her face growing closer in the gloom.
“Guys!” The sound of Finn’s voice broke them apart, Rey getting to her feet in one swift motion. Finn’s face appeared over the side of the skiff. “Guys, they got the Falcon.”
“What?” Rey’s voice was sharp, on the edge of panic.
“The First Order, they found the Falcon and took it back to their cruiser.” Finn swallowed thickly. “It’s gone.”
Rey sat back down.
Poe sighed, eyes falling closed as he leaned his head back against the rusty durasteel of the hull. “We really needed a win here. Just one.”
“What now?” Finn had pulled himself back onto the skiff, hovering above where Rey and Poe sat on the filthy floor.
“We find a ship, figure out a plan, and get her back.”
Rey laughed, the sound more a scoff than anything else. “Oh, just like that?”
There was a sweaty tendril of hair that had fallen just in front of her left eye. He wanted nothing more than to push it back, finish what they started before Finn came back bearing all this wonderful news.
But now was not the time for all that.
Now, they had to complete their mission and reclaim the Falcon, maybe win this war while they were at it. There would be time for whatever simmered between them later. After the mission, after they got the Falcon back, after they beat the First Order back into oblivion. Because that was the only outcome Poe would allow himself to think of: absolute victory over the First Order. When they’d won and the galaxy was back to normal and Poe could push Rey’s hair back from her face any time he pleased - with or without witnesses.
But now was not that time. So he sat on his hands and put on his cockiest smile and said, “Just like that.”