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THE SOUND OF GUNFIRE has subsided. There is only silence amongst the rebels inside the mine — the haunting kind, that almost seems loud — and no one dares to break it. Poe Dameron lets out a slow exhale, still holding Indira tightly in his arms. One of his hands rests on the nape of her neck and the other supports her back, keeping her steady against him. Her breathing is unsteady, hitching on silent sobs that make her shoulders tense, but she is completely still otherwise; no longer hell-bent on charging outside and throwing herself into the line of fire.
Poe lets his gaze drift inside the control room and he locks eyes with Leia. Her expression is mournful, but the general gives Poe a nod that he returns solemnly. He knows this can't be easy on Leia either. Skywalker was her brother — her twin brother — and she had lost him only a few months after the death of her husband.
How can one person suffer so many losses and still keep her head held high? He thinks. How many times can a heart break before it breaks you, too?
Poe's thoughts unconsciously drift to his father. Losing Poe's mother took a heavy toll on him. For a short time after the death of his wife, Kes Dameron had seemed to lose the will to live. He stopped eating and became thin. His temples greyed and his hair grew sparse. It took many months for him to return to a fragment of his former self, but Kes had never truly been the same after the death of his wife. Poe wonders what will become of his father when he dies, too. Will his heart be able to bear one more loss or will he lose the strength to continue carrying on?
Poe has no delusions about their chances of survival; they will be dead soon. Skywalker's confrontation with the First Order had been terribly short-lived. The AT-AT walkers would advance on the mine and blow the rest of the Resistance to hell. It was only a matter of time.
As his morbid thoughts grow more and more depressing, Poe hears voices shouting from the entrance of the mine. His shoulders tense on instinct. Undoubtedly, it is the First Order and their troopers storming in to finish the job.
