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Poe Dameron was not one to pine. At all. Maybe it’s because he spent his whole life growing up on a Resistance base and learning how to fly, so he never had time to ‘pine’. So maybe that’s why Finn was something completely different for him.
They had bonded instantly, and Poe would never get over how he was so goddamn relieved to see Finn again after they had been separated during the TIE fighter crash. It was a long time ago, but something he would remember for years and years. Call him sentimental. He felt like they had this special bond - almost dying together on multiple occasions can do that. Over the time they shared together in the Resistance, the two had grown closer. They learned to trust each other inexplicably and be there for the other. He would be lying if he said that being with Finn didn’t make him happy.
So sitting with him in the Falcon, playing dejarik against Chewie was all he needed. Poe was acutely aware of their close proximity but he couldn’t care less at how his heart leapt about that fact. This small moment of peace was a nice break from the racing terror life brought nowadays.
“You ever gonna go?” Poe asked Chewie as he leaned forward.
“He can’t beat us every time,” Finn said sideways to Poe, not looking away from Chewie.
“Well apparently he does,” Poe said back.
“How does he do it?”
“This guy right here? It’s because he cheats.”
This got a reaction from the Wookiee as the two men both shot back a chorus of “just kidding”. Just then, various beeps traveled through the cockpit signaling the approach to their destination. Chewie stood up in a huff and walked out of the room to go check out the cockpit. The two men shared a look as the Wookiee left.
“He’s cheating,” Finn breathed out with a small laugh.
“He’s definitely cheating,” Poe confirmed with a smile at Finn.
As they stood to follow Chewie, Poe turned off the game, and they made their way towards their positions to receive the information about the spy within the First Order.
Not even a minute into docking, Poe saw the TIE fighters coming in, their fire already raining down on the Falcon. “Finn! We gotta hurry here, buddy! Are you almost done!?” He shouted out the door.
“It’s almost done!” Finn yelled back, rushing to Artoo to check on the downloading light. When it flashed green, he let out a small “yes” of relief before unplugging the droid. “We’re all clear!
The Falcon instantly spun into action as Poe flew it away from the stream of fire. Finn ran to the gun, working with Poe’s ‘fancy flying’ to take out the fighters together and get out safely. When Finn joined them again, he held on for dear life as Poe made various lightspeed skips. When they were finally safe and flying at a normal speed, Poe turned to Finn.
“We make a pretty damn good team, don't we?” He stated.
“Yeah, we do,” Finn grinned back.
—
When the group landed back on Ajan Kloss, the trees moving with the wind from their landing, Poe was almost instantly running out of the Falcon as they touched down. This isn't going to be good Finn thought. He could see the metaphorical steam coming out of Poe’s ears. But before he could go and calm down Poe, he saw Rey run towards them.
“How’d it go?” Rey asked.
“Really bad actually. Really bad.” Poe replied in a huff.
Rey glanced past his shoulder and noticed the Falcon for the first time, “Han’s ship?”
“What’d you do to the droid?” Poe asked, ignoring her comment, looking at BB-8 in slight distress.
“What’d you do to the Falcon?” Rey countered.
“The Falcon’s in a lot better shape than he is!” Poe fired back, motioning to BB-8.
“BB-8 is not on fire like—“
“—What’s left of him is not fire!”
At this point Finn could see where that was heading and started moving towards the two. He called out to Rey before the two could really get going, he’d seen what they were like. Both were hot-headed, but they meant well.
“Finn!” Rey exclaimed as she finally sees Finn. They hug in greeting before she pulled away, “So, bad mood?”
Finn looked slightly confused at this, “Me?”
“No, him,” Rey replied, motioning with her thumb to Poe.
Finn rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the small smile that spread across his face, “Always.”
“How about the whole, you know,” She asked, as she tilted her head with a sly smile on her face. “Being alone with him?”
Finn stared her down at that, giving her a look. “Rey, come on. You know nothing would ever happen. Besides Chewie and Artoo were with us!” Before Rey could ask about the mission more, Chewie interrupted them.
“You lightspeed-skipped?” She accused, turning back to Poe. Finn just rolled his eyes.
“Guys please, we just landed—“ Finn tried to interrupt them but to no avail. He had no choice but to stand silently as the two squabbled. When they finally broke away from each other, he shot Rey an apologetic smile and went after Poe.
“Poe, come on, you know how important her Jedi training is.” He called after the man.
Poe stopped then, and Finn could see the other man’s shoulders rise and fall from his heavy breathing. He reached Poe and raised his hand to his shoulder, turning Poe around to face him. He looks exhausted , Finn noted, the emotional toll of the war was starting to get to all of them. It never failed to astonish Finn how invested Poe was in all this. This whole war, the Resistance, in the people he’s never met but wanted to protect nonetheless. Finn’s hand slipped down Poe’s arm, coming dangerously close to holding hands before Finn pulled it back.
“I know how important her training is but we don’t have nearly as good of a chance if she isn’t out there with us.” He said dejectedly.
“I know, man. But we can do this,” Finn replied. “Come on, let’s go tell the General.” With a slight nod and small smile from Poe, the two men walked shoulder to shoulder towards where the rest of the Resistance members were waiting for a mission report.
—
After Rey got a semi-reluctant blessing from Leia to embark on the mission to find the Sith Wayfinder, Finn and Poe began to make their way across the base towards where Rey was preparing to leave, a silent agreement that they would be joining her.
“Do you ever feel like this is one of these missions we won’t make it back from?” Poe asked quietly, looking down as they walked. His question broke the comfortable silence they often fell into with each other. It almost startled Finn, and when he looked over, he noticed the way he held onto the ring around his neck.
“Sometimes,” He started slowly, “But I try not to. It’s only in the worst possible moment of whatever mission I’m on that I let it slip in.”
Poe looked up at Finn after a moment. “You’re a brave man. I’ve told you that, right?” He said with a smile.
Finn smiled back him, shaking his head fondly. “A few times, yeah. And we’ll make it back from this.”
“How do you know?” Poe asked, coming to stop to look at Finn.
“It’s just a feeling.”
This seemed enough for Poe, who nodded and kept moving. As they neared the Falcon, through the foliage of the trees, they could see Rey talking to Rose. The two shared a quick embrace before Rose moved away from the Falcon to help some of the other Resistance members moving cargo. Rey watched Rose leave for a few moments before springing back into action and continued loading her things into the Falcon. When she caught sight of the two men approaching she stopped, her face instantly morphing to say something like “ you two can’t be serious.”
“I’m going alone,” She stated when Poe approached.
“I’m going with you,” He replied, shrugging his shoulders as he moved to talk to Chewie.
“I need to go alone,” She tried again, this time turning to Finn.
“Yeah, alone with friends,” He countered, giving her a smirk as Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio chimed in with agreements. Rey smiled at them, before nodding. The group filed onto the Falcon while Finn and Rey stayed behind for a minute.
“Does Rose want to come with us?”
“Uhm- no, no- she wants to stay on the base, she wants to help here.” Rey stammered, stumbling over some of her words as she blushed.Finn grinned at her, friendly pushing on her shoulder. “Ah, what a shame.”
“Shut up,” Rey fired at him as they walked up the ramp into the Falcon. Poe was there, checking on some of the wires and panels inside. He looked at them when they entered, and quickly glanced away again with a slight frown. When he seemed satisfied with whatever he was fiddling with, he trailed behind them towards the cockpit. He and Finn entered together, and he threw him a tight smile as they sat down.
—
The Falcon came to a landing on Pasaana. The group made their way out in search of anything that could point them in the direction that Luke was following. The Sun beat down on them within no time. It reminded the trio of their time on Jakku, among other sandy desert planets. Threepio pointed them in one direction, but when they arrived over the crest of a sand dune they find a loud, colorful festival in full swing.
“Oh, well, that’s great luck,” Poe said dejectedly as he observed the crowds.
“We are indeed lucky, the festival only happens once every 42 years!” Threepio exclaimed. The trio turned to stare at Threepio, before accepting their fate and moving down towards the festival. The group moved through the dancing and boisterous crowds, trying to navigate amongst the chaos of noise.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rey remarked as they moved.
“I’ve never seen so few Wayfinders,” Finn snarked back.
“There’s always First Order patrols in crowds like these, so keep your heads down… Chewie,” Poe called out to them.
The group split up to hopefully find more information. Rey and Chewie went off on their separate way as Finn and Poe continued in the same direction. Finn was looking around in wonder, and Poe couldn’t help but gaze at the man.
“I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this,” Finn stated as they slowly walked around.
“It is pretty impressive, huh?” Poe replied. “People celebrating even with everything that’s going on.”
Poe continued to stare at Finn as they moved, only shaking out of it when he knocked into a stack of food crates, causing Finn to look back at him and laugh. Poe chuckled nervously, quickly picking up the crates and moving back in pace with Finn.
“You know,” he started slowly, rubbing his neck as he spoke, “When this whole war thing is over, I’d be happy to fly around the galaxy and show you more things like this.”
Finn turned to him, his face lit up with excitement, “You would?”
“Yeah, I would love to—“
“We have to go, now. The First Order knows we’re here.” Rey gasped as she came running up to the duo. Finn and Poe shared a worried look before starting a jog back to the Falcon. As they tried to hurry through the crowds, suddenly they were facefirst with a stormtrooper.
“Freeze! Right now! I have located the fugitives,” The trooper spoke into their comm. But before they could get the group into detainment, an arrow shot through their head. They instantly fell to the ground. The trio whipped around to see a masked figure holding a crossbow.
“Follow me,” the figure beckoned. The trio shared skeptical glances but followed nonetheless.
When inside a transport speeder, the figure said, “Leia sent me a transmission.”
“How’d you find us?” Finn asked, holding onto the rail due to the bumpy movement.
“Wookiees stand out in a crowd,” Lando Calrissian said as he removed his mask, smiling at Chewie. Chewie made a sound of happiness and went to hug Lando, “It’s good to see you too, old buddy.”
“This is General Lando Calrissian,” Threepio began to state.
“We know who he is, Threepio,” Rey cut him off.
“It is an honor to meet you, General,” Finn said as he took in Lando with wonder.
“General Calrissian, we’re looking for Exegol,” Poe stated, wasting no time. Despite the fact that he too was a little star-struck. He had grown up hearing stories of this man after all.
“Of course you are,” Lando sighed, hitting a button on his arm device for a hologram to pop up. “Only two remain.”
Rey looked at the hologram, “The Sith Wayfinder. Luke Skywalker came here to find.”
“I know, I was with him,” Lando chuckled, “Luke and I were tailing an old Jedi hunter, Ochi of Bestoon. He was carrying a clue that could lead to an old Wayfinder.” Poe stood a little straighter at this, and looked to Finn. The two shared a silent look before focusing their attention on Lando again.
“We followed his ship halfway across the galaxy, to here. But when we got to his ship, it was abandoned, no clue, no Wayfinder.”
Rey turned to Finn and Poe with a brief look before asking, “Is Ochi’s ship still here?”
“It’s out in the desert, where he left,” Lando nodded.
“We have to get to that ship, search it again,” She stated, turning to look at the other two.
Before anyone could say anything more, the sound of incoming TIE fighters rang across the sky. Lando peaked out the window of the transporter to see at least five incoming fighters.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about… Ochi’s ship is out past Lurks canon. Go!” He motioned them out.
“Thank you, General,” Poe said as they left the transporter.
When out in the sun again, the group moved swiftly through the crowds, attempting to stay low. As they neared the edge, Poe noticed two parked speeders, and directed the group towards them. He quickly slid under, ripped open a panel, and reconnected some of the inside wires to get it up and running.
Finn, who was watching him to do this, scolded, “How do you know to do that?” The owners of the speeders noticed the commonation and made their way over, yelling and shouting at the group.
Poe grinned at Finn before shouting, “We gotta go!”
They took off, speeding across the desert towards the canon. Not even a little ways out did Finn notice the Stormtroopers trailing them, and gaining fast.
“Poe…” He started.
“What?” Poe asked, spinning around. His eyes went slightly wider when he saw the troopers, “Shit.”
The troopers started blasting at the two speeders. In the other one, Chewie and Rey had begun firing their blasters back. Poe and Finn duck as the shots got too close for comfort. Poe looked back for a moment as he drove the speeder to see the troopers get flung into the air.
“Oh! They fly now!” Threepio exclaimed.
“They fly now?” Finn asked Poe.
Poe turned around, “They fly now.”
Rey drove her speeder towards the right, and Poe followed suit to drive his speeder through a ridge of rocks. “Did we lose them?” He asked over the noise.
“I think so!” Finn answered, going to crouch closer to Poe.
“Wonderful job, sir!” Threepio praised. Just then one of the troopers on the First Order speeders caught up to them, instantly firing at them. “Terrible job, sir!”
The onslaught of fire caused Finn to fall towards the back, where he noticed a rope. He quickly grabbed one end and threw it at the speeders tread. It got caught and began rolling around and around. He ran towards the upright pole on the speeder with the other end of the rope, and quickly wrapped it around.
“Poe!” He shouted in lieu of a request. Poe instantly understood and pulled on the wheel of the speeder to spin them, throwing the trooper into the rocks, causing an explosion.
“Hell yeah!” They shouted, clasping hands in victory. They grinned at each other briefly before Poe turned the speeder around to go locate where Rey and Chewie had gotten to.
When out of the ridge, Poe saw the others.
“Rey, did you get all of them?” He shouted.
At that moment, one last flying trooper appeared behind them in the sky, shooting both speeders to go flying and crash. They all got flung from the speeders, and landed in the sand next to what appeared to be Ochi’s old ship. In the midst of all the commotion, they were able to fire on the trooper, knocking them out of the sky and into the side of the rocky ridges.
“What the hell is happening?” Poe shouted as he noticed that the sand seemed to be swallowing them down.
“It must be a sinkhole or something!” Rey answered, the entire bottom half of her body had already disappeared in the sand. “Hold on to something!”
Poe went down through the sand with a yelp, Finn struggling to reach Rey. “Wait, Rey, I never told you—“ He attempted but was cut off as he too fell through the sand. He landed on his side in tunnels underneath, and instantly stood up, brushing himself off and trying to locate Poe and Rey. He could hear Poe asking about him and followed his voice.
“Where’s Finn?” Poe asked, his voice almost sounding frantic.
“I’m here” Finn called out through the dark tunnel, stumbling over to Poe. When he reached him, Poe grasped his shoulders, checking him over for injury before letting go. He didn’t move far away from Finn, however. Finn wasn’t complaining, he found it reassuring to be close to Poe. Rey ignited her lightsaber in order to be able to see better, Poe stepped next to her, turning on his flashlight. She gave him a look before moving forward in the tunnels. Finn laughed fondly at Poe before moving to follow Rey.
“Finn, what were you going to tell me? When we were sinking?” Rey asked, glancing briefly at Finn as they walked.
“It’s not important, I’ll tell you later.” Finn said, shaking his head.
“Oh like, when Poe’s not here?” Poe interjected, walking between the two and stopping to look at Finn. “Hm?”
“It’s not like that,” Finn said back, following Poe who had walked ahead in a huff.
“Sure seems like it—“
“It’s really not—“
“Then why don’t you tell me—?”
“You two bicker like an old married couple,” Rey joked, interrupting the two with a scoff. Chewie made a sound from behind. “See! Even Chewie agrees.”
“We do not—” Finn and Poe started at the same time. They both stopped to look at the other, a weird look on their faces before laughing. Finn turned to look at Rey, raising his eyebrows at her. Rey shrugged, and mouths the words I’m trying to get you a date.
“Hey guys, I don’t think Ochi made it out of here,” Poe beckoned. The others came running to see what most definitely were Ochi’s bones. “B-bones. Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick. I can’t do bones.” Finn softly held onto Poe’s arm, offering him silent comfort.
Chewie picked up a dagger from around Ochi’s remains, making a noise to alert the others. He showed it to them, and Threepio stated that yes, he could read it, but no he could not translate it.
“Well now what are we going to do—“ Rey sighed, when a sudden sound behind her stopped her mid-sentence. She slowly turned around to see a creature that looked like a hybrid of a snake and a slug, and five times larger than her. She heard Poe pull out his blaster but motioned for him to not shoot.
“Finn…” Poe whispered, his blaster still up. Finn put his hand on Poe’s, slowly lowering his blaster. Poe looked at Finn in bewilderment, but Finn just shook his head.
“Just trust me,” he whispered in Poe’s ear. Finn looked back to watch Rey, so he missed the slight shiver that racked Poe’s body.
Rey healed the creature after seeing that it was hurt, and in appreciation it opened up a hole in the top of the tunnels for them to escape through. Once in the sun again, they made their way back to Ochi’s ship, climbing up the rocks to get into the abandoned ship. It all happened so fast once they were there. Finn and Poe inside the ship, Rey fighting Kylo Ren, Chewie getting taken prisoner. One minute they were all together, and the next Chewie was dead in the remains of the prisoner transport ship.
When the trio was all back on Ochi’s ship, Poe paced as Finn and Rey sit stoic and silent. It was a little unnerving for Poe to see, he hated the silence.
“We’ve only got eight hours left. So what are we gonna do?” He asked to break the silence that had seated over his friends.
“What can we do? We gotta go back to base,” Finn replied, looking up at Poe.
“We don’t have time to go back to base! We are not giving up! If we do that, Chewie died for nothing!”
“Poe, Chewie had the dagger.”
“Well then we gotta find another way—“
“Well there isn’t! That was the only clue to the Wayfinder thing and it’s gone!”
“It’s true. The inscription lives only in my memory now,” Threepio stated to no one in particular. This got Finn and Poe’s attention, they both turned to look at Threepio.
“Hold on,” Poe said, “The inscription that was on the dagger is your memory?”
“Yes, Master Poe, but the translation of the forbidden language cannot be retrieved. That is short of a complete reductive memory wipe,” Threepio replied, turning to face the trio. Rey had remained silent through all of this, listening but not truly retaining what is happening.
“Complete what?” Finn asked.
“It’s a terrible and dangerous and simple act performed upon unwitting droids by criminals,” Threepio explained, turning slightly away as he spoke.
“Let’s do that!” Finn said, turning to look at Poe with a small twinkle in his eyes. Threepio turned around instantly as Finn spoke.
“I know a black market droid smith—” Poe thought out loud.
“A black market what!?” Threepio demanded..
“—But he’s on Kijimi.”
“What’s wrong with Kijimi?”
“I had a little… bad luck on Kijimi. But if this mission fails… It’s all been for nothing. All we’ve done all this time,” Poe said, looking at Finn hopelessly.
Finn stood to be eye level with Poe, “We’re all in this. To the end.”
He looked back to Rey, who finally stood alongside her friends. “For Chewie,” she said, looking between them, as she grabbed Finn’s hand. Poe followed suit, holding onto Finn’s hand and promptly ignoring the slight butterflies he felt in his stomach at the action.
“For Chewie,” Poe whispered, looking at Finn. Trying to silently say how thankful he is for him, for keeping his hopes up. Threepio shattered the moment the two men were sharing as he came over and held onto Poe’s other hand.
Poe grimaced at this, “to Kijimi,” he stated before leaving to the cockpit. When he had left the room fully, Rey turned to Finn.
“Don’t start,” he said, shaking his head as he rolled his eyes at her.
She smiled and raised her hands to show surrender, “I wasn’t, I wasn’t. But you should tell him how you feel.” Finn just scoffed at that. “I wanted to know what you were going to tell me back in the tunnels, actually.”
“Oh that… I guess it’s kinda stupid now,” he started, looking down at the ground as he rubs his neck. “I think I might be force sensitive.”
“Really?” Rey gasped, moving closer to Finn. “Finn that’s so exciting! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“It never came up?”
“You have to be trained to be a Jedi.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he breathed out with a small smile.
—
Rey and Finn watched from behind a semi-destroyed wall in the dark, snowy and cold Kijimi as Poe slowly crept around to avoid the Stormtroopers. Poe had been uneasy about coming back here, and Finn could understand why now. The locals were being imprisoned and treated like garbage, it would leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth.
“They’re everywhere,” Poe said as he came to stand next to Rey, Finn, and Threepio, looking around. “Alright, I know what we should do. Follow me.”
He led them back behind and through a few alleyways before stopping again and surveying.
“Alright let's head down to—“ Poe stopped as he felt a gun pressed to his head.
“Heard you were spotted at the gate. But I thought, he’s not stupid enough to come back here,” the helmeted figure said.
“Oh you’d be surprised,” Poe joked back, his voice just the smallest bit higher.
“Who’s this?” Rey asked.
“What’s going on?” Finn questioned, as he shifted closer to Poe, his eyes going back and forth between the figure and the gun.
“Uh guys this is Zorii, Zorii this is Rey and Finn—“
“I could pull this trigger right now,” Zorii interrupted.
“I’ve seen you do worse.”
“For a lot less.”
Poe slowly shifted away from the gun, and pulled back his hood to look at Zorii. “Can we just, uh, talk about this?”
“I want to see your brains in the snow,” she replied, her voice coated with annoyance.
“So you’re still mad?” Poe asked, shuffling his feet towards Finn. “Zorii, we could use your help. We gotta crack this droids head open, and fast. We need Babu Frik.”
“Why should I help you?”
“Because despite hating me, you still love me?” Poe tried, raising his arms to shrug and try to look innocent.
Zorii sighed, shaking her head as she slowly lowered the gun. “Fine.”
The group followed Zorii through the winding alleyways, following her underneath into what looked like bar. As they walked through towards the back, she opened a door that led to a workshop littered with wires and old pieces to various machines. Finn walked up towards Poe, throwing him a look of unease.
“Can we trust her?” he asked in a hushed tone, so as not to let anyone else hear him.
“Yeah, we can. I promise,” Poe whispered back. “I wouldn’t put you in danger, buddy.”
“I know you wouldn’t, I’m just skeptical about this whole planet.”
“Yeah, can’t say I blame you on that,” Poe said, smiling at Finn reassuringly before he moved towards Zorii. “Shouldn't we keep watch?”
Instead of a verbal answer, she nodded and motioned for Poe to follow her out the door onto the roofs. Finn watched them go, his face twisted into confusion as the door closed. He went to follow Rey, who left the room after Babu Frik started working on Threepio.
“What, uhm, what do you think their history is, ya know?” He wondered out loud, fiddling with some of the old speeder parts that were around the workshop. He didn’t look at Rey, he knew the look she had on.
“I don't know,” she replied, looking towards the stairs where they left through. She turned to face Finn, a sly smirk on her face, “Why does it matter?”
“No reason,” Finn said hastily, fidgeting in place.
After what seemed like hours, Babu Frik was successful in cracking Threepio’s coding. His eyes turned red. It was quite alarming to see. Poe and Zorii returned shortly after.
“We gotta get moving, did we get the inscription?” Poe asked as he came down the stairs.
“Yeah, we got it,” Rey replied. She grabbed her staff, throwing it over her shoulder as she went to the door. She stopped as the door opened, a feeling overcoming her as she stared up at Kylo Ren’s ship. “Chewie..”
“What?” Finn asked from below.
“It’s Chewie, I can feel him,” she said, turning around. “He’s alive. He’s on Kylo's ship.”
—
The trio docked Ochi’s ship in one of the landing bays of Kylo Ren’s ship, and swiftly made their way through the endless hallways. As they came across pairs of Stormtroopers, they expertly took them out, moving further and further into the belly of the ship. They were almost there, another door opening up when they came across yet another pair of troopers.
“Drop your weapons!” One shouted at them.
Rey moved in front of Poe and Finn and raised her hand in a half circle, “It’s okay that we’re here.”
The troopers blasters lowered, “It’s okay that you’re here,” they repeated.
“You’re relieved that we’re here,” Rey said.
“Thank goodness you’re here!” The trooper on the right repeated..
“Does she do that to us?” Poe asked Finn, leaning his head towards him.
Rey questioned the troopers for the prisoner section of the ship, and the trio made their way there. The doors opened instantly for them once inside.
“The cameras,” Rey stated, shooting out one as Poe shot out the other.
“Chewie’s this way,” Finn directed, moving towards a door control panel. He pressed a combination of buttons before it opened. As the two men headed inside, Rey stayed where she was, turning around in search of something.
“Rey come on,” Finn coaxed.
“The dagger is on this ship. We need it,” she replied, “A feeling… I’ll meet you back at the hanger.”
Finn made to follow her as she ran back the way they came, but Poe stopped him. He shook his head, “We have to find Chewie.”
The two moved in unison again towards Chewie’s detainment cell, running in once they saw him. Chewie made a noise upon seeing them, and they hurried to release his binds.
“Of course we came for you, Chewie!” Poe exclaimed as he worked on the binds. They moved back towards the halls they came through after Chewie was released, but were stopped as more Stormtroopers were coming their way. Finn shot one before shooting the door control panel.
“Wrong way!” He shouted.
“Not really a right way, is there?” Poe replied, crouching as he moved and shot another Stormtrooper. Finn ran up from behind him and shot the other as Poe threw a discarded gun to Chewie. The trio ran through the halls, taking out every Stormtrooper they came across. They left a trail as they found their way slowly back to the hanger.
“We close?” Poe asked as they ran up a ramp.
Finn shot another trooper, “Straight ahead.”
Poe ran ahead. He got caught in the middle of a multiple hall intersection when the shooting began. The momentum caused him to fall. He laid there for a minute, groaning at the sudden pain that had encased his arm. He heard Finn shout his name, and all of a sudden the man was by his side.
“Are you okay?!” Finn frantically asked. His right arm went behind Poe’s back, pulling him up towards him. His left hand landed on Poe’s uninjured arm. Poe grunted at the pain, his face clouded in pain.
“Nope,” he said with a grimace as he watched at least fifty Stormtroopers surround them.
“Take them to the execution room.”
Poe wouldn’t show it as they were pushed towards the execution room, but he was fucking terrified. How were they going to get out of this one? It was terrifying being shoved to stand still, your back away from guns that are your certain demise. He glanced briefly at Finn, whose face was solid in determination.
Poe couldn’t help it, he just had to ask: “What were you gonna tell Rey?” Because if he was going to die, he might as well know if the man he might be in love with loved someone else.
Finn exhaled as he rolled his eyes, glancing at Poe. “You’re still on that?”
“Oh I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”
“Yeah, a little bit, Poe—“
“I just wanted to know—“
“I think I might be force sensitive, okay? That’s what I wanted to say.”
“Oh.”
“If you two are quite finished,” General Hux interpreted. The two had momentarily forgotten that he was even there. “I would like to do this myself.”
The three braced, and when the shots rang out they all flinched. But none of them were dead on the floor. They all slowly turned around to see Hux with his gun pointed at the now three dead Stormtroopers.
He threw the gun on the ground, and turned to them. “I’m the spy.”
“What!?” Poe shouted.
“You!?” Finn followed up.
“We don’t have much time,” Hux said, ignoring their reactions.
“I knew it,” Poe claimed, pointing his bound hands at Hux.
Finn turned to Poe, “No you did not!”
—
After Rey was safe onboard the Falcon, they charted a course to Kef Bir; hoping to find what they were looking for. Rey and Chewie occupied the pilot seats, with Threepio sitting behind them asking various questions about what on Earth was happening. After making sure everything was in order and calm for even a split second, Finn went to find Poe.
He found him in the main room, obviously struggling to fix his damaged arm. Finn scoffed at seeing Poe struggle to tie a piece of cloth around his arm, and walked over to help him.
“Did you put anything on it?” He questioned as he knelt down in front Poe, inspecting his arm.
Poe sighed, “No, but I’ll live. It’s okay.”
“Oh great, I wasn’t even thinking about you dying. Thank you for putting that mental image in my head.”
Poe just laughed softly, resting his head back against the top of the seat. He lazily watched as Finn looked around for something to clean the wound with, before walking back with some water.
“Been through how many fights and doesn’t even have disinfectant on board…” He mumbled under his breath as he splashed some water on Poe’s arm. When he was satisfied with its cleanliness, Finn picked up the cloth and started to wrap around Poe’s arm. Poe winced as Finn accidentally wrapped it too tightly.
“Sorry, sorry…” He murmured as he loosened it slightly. When he was happy with his work, Finn carefully patted Poe’s arm, “There! All done.”
“Thank you, Finn,” Poe whispered, looking down seeing as Finn was still knelt in front of him. He didn’t want to ruin this moment, he rarely got something like this.
Finn nodded slowly, he raised his eyes to look at Poe’s. His lips parted the tiniest amount, and Finn found himself leaning in slowly towards Poe. Poe leaned in towards Finn as well, his eyes going half shut as he watched Finns lips.
The moment was ruined as various beeps rang overhead, signaling their approach to land. Finn stood up, and motioned for Poe to follow him towards the cockpit. As Poe stood to follow, he shook his head to clear. Stupid , he chided himself, why would you even try that?
—
Poe was working with Chewie on repairing the landing gear as Rey, Jannah and Finn worked on other parts of the Falcon. He heard frantic steps come from above and all of a sudden Finn appeared above.
“Rey’s gone,” he stated simply, slightly out of breath.
The two ran out of the Falcon, up the hill and over to where Jannah and her group were standing. She offered them her binoculars to look over the water, and Finn took them first. He scanned over the water before he saw Rey. He angrily handed them to Poe for him to see as well. Poe watched Rey guide the water skimmer into the remains of the Death Star and then disappear. He exhaled sharply before turning around and walking back to the Falcon.
“What the hell was she thinking!” He shouted as he walked down the hill, Finn trailing after him.
“Poe, we gotta go after her!” Finn called.
“We’ll get the Falcon fixed and get out there as fast as we can.”
“No, we’ll lose her.”
“Look! She left us!”
“She’s not herself, you have no idea what she’s fighting!”
Poe stopped and turned around, “And you do?”
“Yeah, I do. And so does Leia,” Finn said, shifting above him.
“Well I’m not Leia!” Poe gritted out, shoving the binoculars at Finn.
Finn grabbed them, and moved away. “That’s for damn sure.”
Poe watched as Finn walked back up to Jannah, alone on the hill. He stayed there for a minute, trying to process what happened before slowly moving back down the hill.
What does he want from me? He thought. I’ve fucked up.
I can’t even be mad about it. I would do the same thing. I just want to make sure that they’re okay, we’re supposed to be a team. I can’t lose them.
I can’t lose Finn.
When he reached the Falcon, he ran on and found Chewie still working on the landing gear. “Chewie we gotta get this up and running. We’ve got some friends to save.”
Working through the pain in his arm, Poe and Chewie were able to get the Falcon functional relatively fast. Wasting no time, they took off over the dangerous waters, searching for their friends. They made it just in time to see Rey fly off in Kylo Ren’s TIE fighter. The two flew the Falcon to where Jannah and Finn were trying to stay a float on the debris. Chewie and Poe navigated closer for Finn and Jannah to be able to climb up the ramp and get into the Falcon.
As Chewie was watching over the hyper speed back to base, Poe went to go find Finn. He found him near the entrance, standing there alone. Poe approached, making his presence known in case Finn decided he didn’t want to see him. Finn heard him walking over and looked up to him, his face unreadable.
“Look, Finn,” Poe started as he came to a stop in front of the other man. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what happened back there.”
“Poe, you don’t have to apologize,” Finn sighed as he pushed off from the wall. “I was wrong in saying what I did. I just… I get so worried about her. She’s so hot-headed, someone’s gotta watch out for her.”
Poe laughed at that, the tension in shoulders fading away. “Probably doesn’t help that I’m just as impulsive and hot-headed, huh?”
“Not really, no,” Finn chuckled, looking down at the ground before smiling at Poe.
“Come on, Chewie could probably use us,” Poe said, wrapping his good arm around Finn’s shoulder and leading them to the cockpit.
—
Hearing the news about Leia’s passing right as they land back on Ajan Kloss was like a knife to the heart. It took every bone in Poe’s body to not fall down to the ground just like Chewie had. He went to the main communications center to be debriefed on what had happened in the past hours.
“Kijimi… How?” He whispered out brokenly. Another planet, gone. Just like that.
“A blast from a Star Destroyer. A ship from the new Sith Fleet.” Commander D’Acy explained.
Beaumont was slowly pacing around the group, talking through what had happened. “The emperor sent a ship from Exegol, does that mean every ship in the fleet has—“
“Has planet killing weapons, of course they do. All of them. This is how they finish it.” Poe concludes.
The transmitting machine begins to beep, “Listen to this,” Rose says, “It’s on every frequency.”
“ The Resistance is dead. The Sith fire will burn. All worlds surrender or die. The Final Order begins. ”
“Leia made you acting General,” Rose says to Poe, “What now?’
It’s all too much for him, he needs to get away from the transition or he might combust. Poe walked away from them, and towards where Leia’s body was.
He sat down on one side of the bed that was covered in a white sheet, hands clasped tightly. He breathed in deeply, eyes already watering.
“I gotta tell ya, I don’t really know… how to do this.” He stumbled out, “What you did… I’m not ready.”
He sniffed in again, bowing his head. He didn’t hear the approaching footsteps, but he jolted when they sat down next to him. He whipped his head up to see Finn, and hastily wiped away the tears on his cheeks.
“You don’t have to do this alone, Poe,” Finn said softly, his face open and earnest as he looked at Poe. “You have so many people who believe in you, I believe you.”
“I can’t do this without her,” He sobbed out, looking down at the ground again.
“You can though. She believed in you. You just have to believe in yourself.”
Poe laughed wetly, wiping the last of his tears. “When did you get so wise?”
Finn shrugged, “I’ve always been wise, you just don’t listen to me.”
Poe shook his head, a small smile breaking across his face. “If I’m going to be a general, I need you to be there right by my side. What do you say?”
“General.”
“General.”
They hugged at hat, smiles wide over both their faces. When they pulled apart Poe asked, “Was there a reason you didn’t tell me about you being force sensitive?”
Finn fidgeted at the question. “I just… Knew about your past with it, and I didn’t want you to look at me differently.”
“Finn,” Poe said softly, his face melting, “I could never look at you differently because of that.”
“I’m glad. But enough with the mushy stuff! We have a war to win!” Finn exclaimed as he stood up, “D-0 has some information that could be helpful, actually. And Lando’s here!”
Finn, Rose and Poe hooked up D-0 to one of the computers, looking at all the information stored on him.
“All the information you need for an airstrike on Exegol,” Finn stated.
“Yeah, except for how to get there,” Poe thought out loud, leaning in closer.
Threepio walked up to them then, “Terribly sorry, I’m afraid R-2’s memory bank must be crossed with his logic receptors. He says he is receiving a transmission from… Master Luke.”
They looked at R-2’s projector of the ransmition, “That’s an old craft ID,” Poe said. “That’s Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing.”
“It’s Rey,” Finn said, standing up to look at Poe. “She’s going to Exegol. She’s showing us. She’s showing us how to get there.”
Poe looked to Finn, his eyes shining with hope, “Then we’ll go together.”
A meeting was quickly called after that, members running to make it. Poe and Finn stood at the center of it all, explaining their plan.
“As long as those Star Destroyers are on Exegol, we can hit them,” Finn began.
“They can’t activate their shields until they leave Exegol,” Rose explained.
“Which isn’t easy on Exegol, ships that size need help taking off, and half can’t tell which way is up out there,” Poe continued. “They use a signal from a navigation tower.”
Finn cuts in, “Except they won't. Air team’s gonna find the tower, and ground team is gonna blast it.”
“Once the tower is down the fleet will be stuck for just minutes, with no shields and no way out.”
“Fighters and freighters can take out their cannons if there enough of us. And that’s were Lando and Chewie come in,” Finn said as he pointed to the two. “They’ll take the Falcon to the core systems, send out a call for help for anybody listening.”
“We’ve got friends out there,” Poe stated as he looked around, “They’ll come if they know there’s hope. The First Order wins by making us think we’re alone, we’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them.”
“Leia never gave up” Finn continued, “And neither will we. We’re gonna show them we’re not afraid.”
“What our mothers and fathers fought for, we will not let die,” Poe subconsciously grabbed his ring as he said this. “Not today. Today we make our last stand for the galaxy. For Leia, for everyone we’ve lost.”
“They’ve taken enough of us, now we take the war to them,” Finn finished. The members around them burst into cheers before running off to ready their ships.
“Finn, wait,” Poe grabbed Finn's arm before he could leave, “I uhm…” Poe awkwardly reached up to his neck, where the necklace with the ring hung. He took it off over his hand and looked at Finn. “I want you to have this.”
“Poe…” Finn said softly, almost an exhale. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I am. I want you to have it. Think of it as a lucky charm.”
Finn took the necklace carefully, searching Poe’s face for any hesitation before he put it around his neck. Poe breathed in when he saw it hang there. Finn pulled Poe in close, his arms wrapping around his shoulders as Poe’s one good arm wrapped around his torso.
“Be safe out there, okay?” Finn breathed into Poe’s neck. “Promise me.”
“I promise,” Poe whispered. He pulled away a minuscule amount to look at Finn's face. “You gotta promise too, buddy.”
Finn laughed, “I promise. Now let’s go kick their asses.”
—
Flying his ship up to what looked like thousands of Star Destroyers was intimidating to say the least. Welcome to Exegol , Poe thought, you got a war to finish . With a quick command, he and his fleet flew between the ships, attempting to locate the navigation tower. The ground crew made to land next to it once it was located, but the tower lost its power, it was shut down.
“The signal was switched to a ship!” One of the pilots said into the comms.
Poe heard Finn speak over the comms right after, “It’s that ship, that’s the one with the signal! Give us cover to take out the navigational tower.”
“You heard the General, all wings,” Poe said, “Cover that Lander.”
It was chaos after that, Poe saw Finn and his group make their way across the top of the ship towards the tower but his attention was quickly drawn away. The Star Destroyers were still firing on them, and avoiding getting hit was getting a lot harder.
Out of the corner of his eye as he flew over, Poe saw the navigation tower explode. “Nice one Finn! They’re blind but not for long!”
“Still no Falcon, or backup,” Snap stated into the comms.
Artoo beeped at that, “I don’t know Artoo,” Poe said, “Maybe no one else is coming… We gotta hit them ourselves. Just stay alive!”
They were getting picked off one by one, it was awful to watch. They were no match for the Star Destroyer Fleet. They didn’t stand a chance.
“My friends,” Poe choked out, “I’m sorry. I thought we had a shot. There’s just too many of them.”
“But there are more of us, Poe,” Lando’s voice cut onto the comms. “There are more of us.” Poe couldn’t believe what he heard, he quickly flew his ship up to see the Falcon and thousands and thousands of ships behind it.
“Look at this,” Poe said in disbelief. “Hit those underbelly cannons, everyone we knock out is a world saved!”
Just when the tide was turning for the Resistance, endless strikes of lightning hit their ships. Their systems start to fail, they start to fall to the ground as the lightning ruins their systems. It was chaotic and confusing, but just as soon as it started, it stopped again. Finn and Jannah still on groundwork are successful in eliminating the command ship.
“Their fleet is stuck here! They’re toast, common on!” Poe shouted through the comms, leading ships towards what star destroyers still remained. “Finn ya seeing this?”
“Finn didn’t board the Lander,” Rose told Poe into her hand comm.
Poe’s entire world halts right there. Finn . “They’re still on that command ship?”
Poe hit his flying commands hard, and flew as fast as he could to the main command ship. He desperately searched for Finn, and when he saw him, hanging on by a thread, his heart leapt dangerously. “I see them. I’m going in.”
“General, you won’t make it!”
“Trust me I’m fast.”
“Not as fast as this ship, and we’ve got the space,” Lando cut in, flying over Poe and fast to get to Finn and Jannah. Poe breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw Finn safely make it inside the Falcon. We don’t need anymore casualties.
It was surreal, after that. To see all those star destroyers fall to the ground. They did it. They won.
—
It was chaos back on the base, everyone running to congratulate and hug each other. They had just won the damn war. They deserve a celebration. Poe walked between the crowds in disbelief. It was finally over. He looked through them all in search of one person though: Finn.
“Poe!” He heard from behind him. He turned around to see Finn running up to him and felt tidal waves of relief crash over him. They barreled into each, clinging on for dear life. Poe shoved his head into Finns neck, his hand grasping his neck tightly.
When they finally pulled apart, Poe was overcome with so many emotions. “Can I kiss you?” He asked simply, not realizing what had just left his mouth.
Instead of answering, Finn moved closer to connect their lips together. It was like explosions were happening around. Poe didn’t know how to react. It felt crazy and surreal and perfect and like home to be kissing Finn. His one hand slowly climbed to hold onto Finn's head, as Finn wrapped his arms around him, pulling Poe ever closer. When they did finally pull apart, they both were breathing heavily. They kept close to the other, foreheads resting against each other. Poe smiled, his eyes still closed.
“I’ve been wanting to do that since forever,” Poe breathed out against Finn’s lips.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I was scared, scared that you didn’t want me to.”
Finn smiled at that, and pulled Poe back in for another kiss. It was even better than the first one. When they disconnected, again, Finn came out of his trance and began to pull off the ring from around his neck.
“No, no,” Poe stopped him, placing his hand on Finns. “Keep it. It suits you.”
They clasped hands, and began to make their through the crowds of people. Poe spotted Rey first, unhooking his hand to point her out to Finn. She stood there for a second before walking closer to them, they all met in the middle. Holding on so tightly to each other their bones could break.
“Rey!” They pulled apart at the sound of Rose, who came running up to Rey to hug her. The two women looked content in each other’s arms, and then Rose pulled back to quickly kiss Rey on the lips. It was only after she does that doe she realize what she did.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry.”
“No don’t be, I liked it,” Rey said, a fierce blush colored her cheeks.
Finn laughed at the two women, pulling Poe into his side to kiss his lips quickly. “I guess a war can bring us together?” Rey and Rose stared in disbelief at the two men. Finn grinning ear to ear and Poe looked flustered at his side.
“Oh thank god! You two finally kissed!” Rose shouted with glee.
“It took you long enough,” Rey said with a smirk.