Kyber Heart - Poe Dameron

Chapter 1

The silence of the hanger was almost eerie. There was no clattering of tools from the technicians, or chatter from the pilots. No orders were being called over the speakers. No engines were running or droids beeping.

Anyone who was still awake was stationed elsewhere – tending to the sick in the medbay or keeping things running smoothly from the command centre, listening for anything that could help or hinder them.

Everything was still.

However, everything was not dark.

A single beam of bright torch light shone through the shadows, bouncing off the sleeping ships and walls. It would move every now and then to a different ship, causing the beam to ricochet off to another corner of the room.

The source of the light could be traced back to the cockpit of an X-Wing, stationed off to the side of the inky hanger. The torch was held by a figure. Comfortably curled up in the seat, flicking the light around the room absentmindedly. Face covered by a hood, clouding their features in shadow.

The figure sighed heavily, pulling their hood down to reveal their brown hair, running their fingers through it to neaten it – though little effort was put into the action.

It was a young woman.

Somewhere in her late twenties – but the bags under her eyes and the shadows dancing across her face aged her, and made it hard to determine.

Her hand dropped from her hair, and this time she groaned, letting her head fall back to hit the leather seat.

Her brown eyes glanced around her surroundings aimlessly, unfocused. Nothing new to note. Nothing new to distract her. Even in the midnight shadows, the brightness of them could be seen. And the darkness too. Of stories hidden deep, left to be untold or forgotten.

To a stranger, they would have thought this woman was asleep with her eyes open. But to those that knew her, they would know that she was thinking. The kind of thoughts hard to explain, but easy to get lost in. While her eyes saw nothing, her brain worked overtime. Quickly creating disconnected ideas and just as quickly breaking them and moving on to something else. The only way to describe her mind in that moment, was a battlefield.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the opening of the door to the hanger, accompanied by boots on smooth stone.

Her mind came back to reality, pulling her hood back over her hair before looking at the source of her disturbance. She flicked the light of her torch over to the shadow approaching her, flashing it in their eyes to try to deter them.

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy Nova, I'd like it if you didn't blind me," they said, raising a hand to shield their eyes.

Nova huffed out a sigh and removed her hood again. "Oh, it's just you."

"Don't sound so pleased," they retorted.

She rolled her eyes, removing the beam of the torch from their face.

"Can I come up?"

She made no verbal response, but directed the light to the ladder propped against the ship.

They approached and climbed up to join her.

The person in question was a man.

A little bit older and taller than her. Skin a naturally darker tan in colour. Dark brown eyes, always deep with some emotion or another. Hair a mess of dark curls, often tousled from being kept beneath a helmet – or from his own handiwork.

His name: Poe Dameron.

He pulled himself into the cockpit beside Nova, letting her shift to a more comfortable position in his arms.