Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stormtroopers were people too. It was something Poe Dameron hadn’t really thought about.

But then he met FN-2187.

Finn. He met Finn, who was a person just like him. He just hadn’t been treated as such.

Poe helped him escape the First Order, brought him to the Resistance and even inspired him to join them. They’d grown quite close over these past few months, in fact.

It had made Poe wonder whether there were other stormtroopers who, like Finn, wanted to defect. But he hadn’t given it much thought, as they had more pressing matters at hand. He’d noted to himself that they could help those people after they won.

He would’ve never thought they would come to him first.

It happened on an insignificant planet, in a tiny star system, on a normal standard weekday. He didn’t expect much to happen during his time there. He’d get the information from the spy and return to home base.

Then he was ambushed out of nowhere.

His attackers didn’t hurt him, only restrained him and led him down the dark alley. Their stormtrooper helmets had Poe thinking he was about to be tortured again, but when they reached their destination, it wasn’t a First Order ship. Simply the basement of an abandoned house instead.

Surprises just kept coming, because then the stormtroopers took off their helmets.

Behind those masks were young men and women, barely of age, some still clearly children. It made Poe frown on its own – was the First Order that desperate for troops? The Resistance, even in its great time of need, would never recruit kids to fight.

“Are you Poe Dameron?” asked one of the older stormtroopers.

“Who’s asking?” Poe shot back. He was suspicious. This could very well be a trap of some kind.

“We don’t have much time”, said the stormtrooper, his tough façade breaking a little. “You helped FN-2187 escape, right? We need your help.”

Poe blinked. “What?”

“We’re trying to escape the Order”, explained the stormtrooper, his tone hushed as to not let anyone else hear him. “Can you help us?”

Trying to escape. Poe’s assumptions of there being others like Finn rushed back to him from a few months ago. When he met Finn. He’d almost forgotten about those thoughts.

Now they slapped him in the face as a dozen kids stared down at him, their eyes pleading.

“You want to leave the First Order?” Poe confirmed.

A few were brave enough to nod. “Yes, we heard the story of how FN-2187 escaped with a Resistance pilot”, said the one who’d been speaking before. “We want to go with you.”

Poe and that stormtrooper looked deep into each other’s eyes. The tiny spark of hope in the young man’s eyes made Poe’s heart ache.

This was genuine. These kids truly wanted to escape. This wasn’t some trap set up for him.

So he said,  “Alright, I’ll help you. Are you alone here?”

That spark he’d seen now grew, and not just in one pair of eyes.

“Thank you, sir”, said that one stormtrooper, smiling shyly. “And no, we’re not alone. There are others, too.”

Poe nodded. “My ship’s not far. It’s a cargo ship so I think we’ll fit”, he assured.

“Our supervisors are by the City Hall”, informed the stormtrooper. Then he paused. “We’ll… be killed if we get caught.” He sounded hesitant.

Poe smirked. “Then let’s not get caught.”

That sparked some confidence among the others, which is what Poe had hoped for. He grabbed his pistol, which the stormtroopers had taken when they brought him here. “Get ready. On my mark we run, alright? My ship’s in the woods to the east.”

He was met with nods. The troopers readied their weapons, put on their helmets, and lined up before the exit.

Poe got in front and pressed his ear to the door to check if anyone was right outside. No. They were good to go. The pilot turned back to the stormtroopers and nodded. They nodded back.

So he kicked the door open, his small blaster aimed forward. No one came at them. That was good.

Poe signaled for the troopers to follow him. They ran, trying to not make much noise. But with the stormtrooper armor clinking together, stealth was impossible.

Still, they made it pretty far before they were spotted. Another group of stormtroopers, clearly experienced ones, began to give them chase as they made for the woods.

Shots were fired, and Poe kept looking back to make sure everyone was still okay and running.

It cost him as he couldn’t run as fast that way. One to the side, another to his arm.

He toppled as the hits made him lose his balance. With what was basically a somersault on the ground, he rolled backwards and back up to his feet.

The ship was in sight, some had already reached it. But they were hover outside, not sure whether to go inside.

“Go, go, go!” Poe encouraged them. It was enough to get the kids onboard, the rest of them too.

Poe was the last to board, firing a couple more shots at the enemy. As soon as he was certain everyone was inside, he pressed a button to close the ramp and ran to the cockpit.

The ramp closed with a thud behind him and the controls flickered to life. Poe nearly missed the chair as he hurriedly sat down, starting thrusters.

“Hold onto something!” he yelled at the others. “It’s gonna be a rough start!”

Blasterfire continued outside faintly. But their handheld weapons were no match for the ship’s thick hull.

Poe pulled back, and they lifted off the ground. He felt the steady hum of the engines increase as he forced the vessel up.

There was some creaking as the ship wasn’t made for such a quick takeoff, but it was nothing Poe was concerned about at the moment. He’d flown worse ships.

The wounds in his side and arm burned, but adrenaline was doing its job well. Blood loss wasn’t a problem yet. He could get this damn ship into space, put it on autopilot, and then maybe pass out.

Pop, they were out of the planet’s atmosphere.

The pilot sighed in relief. He steered the ship to a steady position and jumped to hyperspace. Setting the autopilot to a steady pace towards the Resistance base, he smiled at the screen.

DESTINATION: HOME

TIME TO DESTINATION: 22 hours 19 minutes

Satisfied, Poe got up to check on the others.

“Everyone okay?” he asked, holding himself in a way that best hid the wound in his side.

They’d all taken off their helmets again, as if they didn’t even want to wear them in the first place.

“Yeah, we’re okay”, said the guy always speaking.

Poe smiled reassuringly. “What’s your name, kid?” he asked, not wanting to call them stormtroopers in his head.

“LD-3369”, replied the young man.

Poe huffed. “Alright, you all need actual names. I’m not using your stupid numbers.”

With a couple hours and a ton of talking, each of the ex-stormtroopers settled on a name they wanted to be called. Poe had a few great ideas too.

LD-3369 took Dante. AC-2184 became Ace. PO-9491 decided on Poppy. And so on.

Poe was incredibly happy to see them all get excited about their new names. They’d always been just numbers. This was very humanizing for them.

But the wounds were starting to bother him more and more. He took a quick break to go clean and bandage his side and arm, but the pain remained. The one on his arm was but a scrape, but the one in his side had bled quite a lot already.

Still, he returned as if nothing was wrong and kept going. He didn’t tell them he was hurt. They were just kids, most of them, and they’d just left their entire lives behind them.

That was enough to deal with. Poe didn’t want to worry them with his own problems.

But he did hope they would reach home base before the wound got infected or something. That would be harder to handle.

Chapter Text

LD-3369 was trying his best to get used to being Dante.

He liked the name. It felt like him. But honestly, any name would’ve felt great after spending his entire life as a number.

The others seemed really happy about their names too. Dante knew they were all eternally grateful to Poe Dameron. He helped them escape, gave them food and water, and most of all, treated them as people.

But in their bubble of hope and joy, none of them noticed he was clearly hurt.

Except Dante. He could tell something was wrong.

Poe didn’t eat – gave it all to them instead. He didn’t move around much, and when he did, it looked like it hurt. Still, he chatted with them, laughed, smiled and did everything he could do make them comfortable.

After the younger ones went to sleep, Dante finally spoke up.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his tone careful.

Poe looked at him. “What, me? Oh, I’m okay, don’t worry”, he hurriedly explained.

Dante hesitated. Back in the Order, he wouldn’t have dared ask such things in the first place. But now, with someone safe and trustworthy, he had a nagging feeling that he should press the issue.

So he did. “Did you get hit?”

He knew the answer. He’d seen the blood on his clothes.

And Poe knew he knew, so he admitted, “Yeah, but it was nothing, really. Already bandaged it.”

Dante had seen it before – people hiding injuries. In the Order, being injured meant you got decommissioned. If you weren’t useful, they got rid of you.

Sometimes they treated each other in secret to prevent the wounded one form being taken away. That only worked with minor injuries though, as the major ones became apparent sooner or later anyways.

Dante hoped this was a case where that could be prevented.

“I won’t tell anyone”, he promised. “I can help a little at least, while the others are asleep. No one will find out.”

Poe seemed a bit confused at that. “You don’t have to”, he said. “I can handle it.”

Before Dante could reply, they heard crying.

Dante sighed. “That’s NA-2- I mean Nexus”, he said, correcting himself at the end there. “She gets nightmares.”

“Can I help somehow?” asked Poe, sympathizing.

“Holding her usually helps”, Dante suggested. “Makes her feel safer.”

Nodding, Poe slowly got up, clearly struggling. Dante followed him to the other cabin, keeping a close eye on the pilot.

Nexus’ crying had woken up a lot of the others, too. Their eyes snapped to the two as they stepped in. But they didn’t say anything, trusting Poe to not hurt their friend.

Poe sat down beside Nexus and gently helped her sit up, trying his best to not wake her up. He cradled her close to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. She was shaking, deep in her nightmare.

“Shh”, Poe hushed gently. “You’re safe, you’re okay.”

His touch seemed to ease the shaking. Nexus unconsciously curled in on herself, closer to Poe.

The pilot stroked her dark hair. She was one of the youngest – barely twelve. It made his heart ache that she had already suffered so much.

A particularly frightening image struck Nexus’ mind, and she lashed out to protect herself from a threat that wasn’t there.

Dante heard Poe grunt as her knee slammed into his side.

But instead of pulling away, Poe only held her tighter. “You’re safe”, he whispered through slightly hitched breaths. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you.”

Nexus relaxed. The pilot eased his hold on her but kept stroking her head.

The others all watched as he gently rocked her side-to-side, letting her feel his beating heart and warmth.

It took a few more minutes, maybe ten, maybe fifteen, before Poe finally laid Nexus back down. Her breathing had calmed down. She was sleeping peacefully now.

Poe stood back up as quietly as he could, trying to suppress any sounds of discomfort. Without another word, he left the room.

Concerned, Dante followed him. He kept his distance though, not wanting to be seen.

The pilot stopped by a table, grabbing it like a lifeline. He let out a soft groan and took off his jacket. And as he lifted his shirt, Dante could see the white bandages underneath. Only, they weren’t white anymore, red seeping through excessively.

So he was injured. And Nexus kicking him had probably reopened the wound.

Poe pressed a hand to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Most likely, he had no more bandages to replace the ones that had been bled through.

Something beeped. And beeped again.

It was coming from the cockpit. Poe grunted as he pulled the shirt back down, threw on his jacket and went to check it.

Feeling brave enough, Dante stepped forward and made himself known.

“What is it?” he asked.

Poe’s head snapped to him, clearly not having heard him come. He blinked to focus and looked back at his console. “We’re home”, he muttered.

“Should I wake the others?” asked Dante.

Poe nodded, sliding to the pilot’s chair already. “Prepare for landing.”

Dante jogged back to the other cabin, where the others slept. Most were still awake from the nightmare incident.

“We’re arriving”, he told them.

That’s all it took to get them up and preparing. Only in a minute were they ready to go, having slept in their clothes and pieces of armor too.

“Be ready for anything, alright?” Dante warned. “Don’t attack, except if they try to take Poe.”

“Why would they take him?” asked Ace, concerned.

“He’s hurt.”

They all went silent. Each one of them knew what that meant.

“We won’t let them take him”, assured Muck after a moment. Nods met him as silent agreement and a promise. They wouldn’t let anyone decommission the man who’d saved them.

The ship thudded to the ground, breaking the moment.

Hurriedly they all gathered near the exit, weapons ready but not yet raised. Hostility would only come if necessary.

From the cockpit, came Poe’s voice. “Hey, wait for me! It’s probably not ideal if you-“

But they didn’t wait. Ace pressed the button to open the ramp and everyone else tightened their grips on their blasters.

As soon as the ramp hit the floor, they walked down, faces firm but weapons still low. They were immediately met with a bunch of confused looks.

They weren’t wearing their helmets, but at the recognition of their armor, those looks turned defensive.

Someone yelled for help, and soon enough the shuttle bay filled with Resistance soldiers, weapons aimed right at them. A well-dressed figure appeared among them, an elderly woman.

“Where is my pilot?” she demanded, her voice steady but firm.

Just then, Poe basically slid down the ramp behind them, panting. He came to an unsteady halt right in the middle of the ex-stormtroopers.

“Hey! Nobody shoot! We’re… we’re…” he tried to explain, but his voice faded out before he could finish. Adrenaline quickly wore down from that little stunt. His eyes rolled back as he collapsed.

Both sides moved. The ex-troopers went on the defensive, while the Resistance moved to grab their own from enemy hands.

But they halted as the supposed enemy aimed back at them. Their eyes burned with fierce loyalty, but to an outsider it might’ve looked like malice.

“Don’t come any closer!” spat Dante.

While the others held positions, Jack and Cece dropped their blasters to check on Poe.

The pilot was unconscious, but breathing. Sweat was drying on his face, and his hands were bloody. Rolling him onto his back, they could also spot the source of the blood. The wound had bled through his clothes now, too.

Jack stroked a curl or two out of Poe’s face. “I don’t know how to treat this”, he muttered worriedly.

“Will he die?” whispered Cece, her voice small.

“No, we’ll find a doctor somewhere”, assured Jack. “Just got to make sure they don’t take him.” By they he meant the Resistance. They would decommission him.

That elderly woman stepped forward. “What do you want?” she asked, surprisingly calmly.

Dante curled his finger on the trigger. “You can’t have him”, he shot back instead of answering.

“Why did you bring him here then?”

The question was surprising. “He helped us escape”, Dante explained, unsure. “But he… got hurt.”

“Then let us treat him”, suggested the woman. “And if you’re not spies, we won’t hurt you. You can stay here for as long as you need to.”

“We can treat him”, said Dante. “He doesn’t need to be decommissioned.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Decommissioned?” she inquired. “Oh, child, we don’t do that here.”

Dante stayed suspicious. “It’s protocol.”

“Maybe in the Order, but not here”, the woman assured, a small, sympathetic smile quirking up. “We treat our wounded and let them return to duty when they’ve recovered.”

She raised her hand and slowly lowered it, signaling the Resistance troops to lower their weapons.

Dante followed, putting his blaster down. “Alright”, he said. “We’ll let you take him if we can come with him.”

The woman nodded. “I promise we won’t hurt him”, she assured. “Now, will you let me see him?”

With a nod from Dante, the others lowered their weapons as well, and made way for the woman as she approached.

She kneeled down next to Poe and cupped his cheek in her hand. “You’ve got some explaining to do, Dameron”, she chuckled softly.

Two Resistance medics came to take the pilot away on a stretcher. Dante and the others left their weapons behind as they followed. That woman came with as well, staying close to the stretcher.

Dante wondered who she was.

Chapter Text

When Finn heard Poe had returned, he was unfazed.

The pilot had gone on a simple mission and he’d returned on time. There was nothing to worry about.

But then he heard the rest of the story, and suddenly he was very much fazed.

He strode right to medical, barely keeping himself from running there. Poe was hurt and there were a bunch of stormtroopers with him. But apparently these were good stormtroopers, so make what you will of that.

When he arrived, he was met with quite a sight – the place was packed.

Poe was at the center of it all, asleep and propped up on pillows. He was surrounded by a peculiar crowd that consisted of General Organa, Poe’s squadron, and strangest of all, around a dozen teenagers in stormtrooper armor.

Those kids snapped their attention to the newcomer, clearly on the defensive.

Finn approached carefully. “Hey, I’m Finn”, he introduced. “I’m a friend of Poe’s.”

At the mention of his name, their aura changed to a calmer shade. “You’re Finn?” one of them confirmed.

“Yeah, that’s my name.”

They accepted him in, allowed him to come to Poe’s side. He was one of them – a stormtrooper. An ex-stormtrooper, specifically. These kids had wanted out just like him.

And Poe had helped them do it. Just as he had helped him.

Focusing on said pilot, Finn sat down on a chair beside the man’s bed. Poe looked peaceful, a bit paler than usual but he was very much alive. He wore a simple white shirt, but Finn could imagine the bandages underneath.

Looking up at the others, he asked, “How is he?”

“He was shot in the side, but there was no major internal damage”, explained Leia. “He’ll be fine.”

Finn nodded as a sign of acknowledgement, his eyes already shifting back to Poe. Silently, he pleaded for the man to wake up. Finn wanted to hear this bizarre story from his perspective.

How did you manage to adopt a bunch of kids?

And what did you do to make them look like they’re ready to burn the kriffing world for you?

Poe tended to make friends everywhere he went, Finn knew that. People tended to find him annoying at first, but somehow they all grew to absolutely adore him.

Take his squadron, for example. They always complained about him, said he was a pain in the ass. And yet, if it came to it, they would fist-fight Kylo Ren himself to save him.

Poe was the best pilot in the Resistance, a figure many looked up to. But even more than that, he was a symbol of hope to them – the metaphorical face of the rebellion.

And their top recruiter too, apparently.

Finn smiled to himself at the absurdity of it all. Then he heard a soft groan, and his eyes snapped to Poe’s face. The other was groggily opening his eyes.

The others, too, tried to huddle around them, but Leia held them back, muttering something about not giving the man some space.

So when Poe did open his eyes fully, only Finn was there.

“Hey”, said Finn softly, smiling.

“Finn?” Poe said, clearly a bit confused. “Where… where are they?” he asked.

“Your new kids?” chuckled Finn. “Just in the other room, don’t worry.”

Poe gave him a look, but it only made Finn chuckle harder. “Oh, don’t even try! They caused quite a scene for you back there, you know?”

“What? What happened?” Poe inquired, suspicious. He couldn’t remember anything beyond rushing out of the ship to try and prevent any scene.

“Well, they…” Finn hesitated. “They apparently almost started shooting. I wasn’t there, but it was quite a standoff from what I’ve heard.”

“Force, was anyone hurt?” Poe confirmed.

“No, everyone is okay”, assured Finn. “But those kids are worried about you. Are you up to see them?”

Poe nodded, already pushing himself up. Finn held him down.

“No, you don’t need to get up”, he said.

“I just want to sit”, argued Poe, pouting.

Finn sighed and helped prop the pilot up. He slid a few pillows behind him and made sure he wasn’t straining the wound.

Then he proceeded to the door and peeked out. He spotted the cadets right away. They hadn’t strayed far, as expected.

“Hey, he’s awake”, Finn informed.

The kids poured right in, eager to see the pilot. Finn followed, closing the door behind him.

Poe smiled when he saw them. “Hey, you guys okay?” he asked.

“Yeah”, said one of them. “But we kind of freaked out when you passed out”, he admitted. “We thought they would take you to be decommissioned. That’s the policy in the Order.”

Poe seemed surprised at that. “Oh, that’s… horrible”, he muttered. “But don’t worry, that’s not a thing here.”

“We know now”, mumbled the kid, clearly a bit embarrassed.

“It’s okay, Dante”, Poe assured. “What matters is that everyone’s okay. You can stay as long as you need to.”

The kid, Dante, questioned that last part. “What do you mean? We’re joining you.”

“Woah, no”, argued Poe. “The Order might recruit children, but we will never steep so low. We’ll give you shelter and help you find a safe place to stay, alright?”

“No, we want to fight”, said Dante firmly.

Poe sighed. “I know, but I’m not putting children out there. The few of you that are older, can be recruited. But the rest of you, no.”

“I don’t wanna leave”, a little girl piped up.

Poe looked down at her with soft eyes. After a moment, he said, “I can try to arrange you a place here. But you’re too young to be a soldier, Nexus.”

The girl, Nexus, sniffed. “Can we still help you?” she asked.

Poe smiled. “I’m sure we can find you some little tasks to do”, he assured. He looked up. “The rest of you, too. If you want to stay, I’ll try my best to arrange it.”

The kids looked at each other. With some nods, Dante turned back to Poe. “We’d very much like to stay”, he said. “We’ll do whatever we can to help the cause.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do”, chuckled Poe.

Finn smiled in the back. The rebellion may have not be going too great at the moment, but it was moments like these that kept up a sense of hope. That kept them fighting.

Poe Dameron kept them fighting.