The Bird and the Flame -- Poe Dameron

VIII

She sat there, on the railing that led up to the X-wing with her chin in her hands, surrounded by sand. BB-8 had rolled off only seconds before into the small village that they had landed the ship next to.

Tatoni stared at the sand (which was more of a glare than a stare) when she felt a small rumble. She looked up at the starry sky and beyond the horizon when she saw four lights zooming through the sky. The closer the lights got the more the sand underneath her shook.

Tatoni quickly jumped to her feet as she got the feeling of impending doom rising inside of her stomach. The villagers began to ring bells and yell at each other in a foreign dialect as the ships got closer. She ran towards the village as quickly as she could when she saw Poe sprinting towards her.

"What is it?" she called out.

"We've got company!" he grunted as he grabbed her hand as he ran past her, pulling her back to the ship.

The ground shook beneath her as the ships landed, still running hand in hand with Poe. She could hear blasters shooting behind them.

"Come on BB-8 hurry!" Poe called behind him. Tatoni let go of his hand and ran up towards the x-wing, quickly climbing into the back.

"It's the First Order, isn't it." Tatoni panted as Poe jumped in.

"Yes," he grunted as he quickly began to turn on the ship's engine.

She looked behind her to see flames and masses of stormtroopers shooting down the village when she saw two blasts coming towards the ship, "Poe!" she yelled out as the blasts hit the back of the ship.

An alarm began to ring as two stormtroopers ran towards the x-wing. "I see em'" Poe exclaimed as he got the blasters on the ship ready before shooting down the stormtroopers.

"Come on princess, this thing is useless now," he called out as he jumped back to the ground.

Tatoni picked herself up and grabbed her blaster before running towards Poe who watched the village go up in flames. Stormtroopers grabbed onto innocent villagers and burned their houses to the ground when she saw the man Poe had been talking to. The man with the key to finding Luke Skywalker.

"Poe, did you get it?" she asked looking at Poe who stared at the village.

He pulled his eyes from the horrid scene and grabbed a small pouch out and pulled out a chip before leaning down to BB-8. "You take this. It's safer with you than it is with me," he said, putting the chip in BB-8. "You get as far away from here as you can. Do you hear me?" he asked and BB-8 chirped in response.

"What do we do?" Tatoni asked as she looked down at Poe. He looked up at her and stood to his feet.

"You go with him, get as far away from here, find a way off Jakku."

"What?" she asked looking him in the eyes. "No, no. Absolutely not. I'm not leaving you."

"I'll come back," he said grabbing Tatoni's shoulders. "I'll come back," he repeated in a low whisper, as if he could only hope he would make it back.

"I'm not leaving you, Dameron."

"Yes you are." he exploded and let go of her shoulders. "Now go!" he yelled before running back towards the village.

Tatoni looked down at BB-8, "Go. It'll be alright." she said and BB-8 began to roll off, away from the village. She stayed, rooted there before cussing to herself and running back towards the village with her blaster in hand. She found Poe who was blasting at some of the stormtroopers and got to his side.

"What are you doing?" he chided, momentarily looking at Tatoni with wild eyes. "Get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you." Tatoni snapped back and positioned herself next to him and began to shoot at stormtroopers too.