42: A Poe Dameron Love Story

XX

Movie Marker: 1:54:37

"Hit those underbelly cannons!" I ordered. "Every one we knock out is a world saved."

Zipping across Exegol with the new fleet of ships, we took out a whole Star Destoryer.

"So long, sky-trash," said a familiar voice.

"Who's that flyer?" I thought aloud.

"Take a guess, spice runner," the voice responded.

"Ha!" I laughed. "Zorii, you made it!"

It seemed the battle was finally making a turnaround. Then, an enormous blast of electricity came rocketing up from the ground, targeting every resistance ship, paralyzing us in mid-air.

"R-2! The systems are failing!" I realized. "Does anyone copy?" My X-Wing began spiraling downward.

All ships around me were doing the same. After anxious seconds of falling towards the ground, the lightening subsided and I regained control of my ship once more.

I only hoped nobody had been flying close to the ground.

"Poe, the command ship!" a pilot realized.

It had been destroyed

"Their fleet is stuck here!" I said in triumph. "They're toast! C'mon, let's go!"

The Star Destroyer began to take a nosedive.

"Finn, Kai, you seeing this?" I smiled.

"Finn didn't board the lander," said my intercom.

My heart sank. "They're still on that command ship?"

The one that was currently falling out of the sky.

"I see them!" Two figures—Finn and Jannah—were clinging to the nearly vertical surface of the ship. "I'm going to get them."

"General, you won't make it," said a pilot.

"Trust me, I'm fast," I assured them.

"Not as fast as this ship," Lando's voice came through. The Falcon shot ahead of me. Jannah and Finn jumped onto the roof of the Falcon then slid safely inside.

I breathed out a sigh of relief then caught spit in my throat at the realization that Kai and her ship was still out there.

"Kai, do you read me?" I said into my mic.

No response.

Trying not to panic, I reasoned that maybe her intercom had been damaged.

I zipped through the various ships, searching for Kai's. It wasn't there.

Now despairing, I scanned the ground of the planet amongst the rubble of fallen Star Destroyers she so easily could have been crushed under.

Then, I spotted her. A Mandalorian outside of Kai's ship, standing over a body.

I cursed in a panic realizing that Kai was the body, not the Mandalorian.

I landed my X-Wing and got out quickly, taking a blaster with me. I had no idea what the Mandalorian code said about desertion or what they would do to former members.

The Mandalorian knelt down over the body.

"Stop!" I yelled, taking aim. My wrapped arm still hurt as I extended it. "Don't touch her!" I ordered.

The Mandalorian turned to me, slowly rising from its stooped position.

"Who are you and what do you want with her?" I demanded, moving closer.

"An old friend," they answered, "called 34. 42 saved my life, now I saved hers."

Kai's ship was on fire. The Mandalorian must have pulled her from it.

"That's it?" I pressed.

"That's it," 34 assured me.

I lowered my blaster.
"It's not her fault she had to leave," I said at last. "She got shot, we had to remove her helmet to heal her. We didn't kn—"

"It's okay," the Mandalorian interrupted. "I'm . . . glad I finally got to see her face." 34 paused in thought. "Take care of her, for me, Poe," they said.

The Mandalorian knew my name. I realized Kai must've told stories of our time as kids on Yavin-4.

"I-I will," I said. "That's a promise."

"Tell her 34 says goodbye," they added, "and that I hope you'll be happy, genuinely."

I nodded and scooped up an unconscious Kai to bring her back to my X-Wing.

"Thank you," I said. "She means a lot to me."

The Mandalorian nodded once and turned back towards their ship, disappearing into the thick fog of Exegol.