#8-bit blaster | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dindjarindiaries · 3 months

Text

Senator's Shadow - Chapter 8

summary: You, Hunter, and the squad head to your home village for a fight that could put an end to this crisis, no matter whose side wins.

pairing: hunter (the bad batch) x fem!reader

rating: mature (18+)

tags: bodyguard romance, forbidden love, fluff & angst, emotional & physical hurt/comfort, canon-typical violence, injuries & blood, trauma, eventual/mild smut

word count: 7.115k

chapter 7 ⟸ series masterlist ⟹ chapter 9

chapter 8 ⟹

You checked yourself over in the reflector as you secured your belt in place. Putting on your combat gear was like returning home, bringing you back to the truest and most familiar version of yourself. You were beginning to miss the simplicity of it more and more.

And Hunter’s earnest gaze on you made it all the more appealing to have on.

You smiled before you threw him a glance over your shoulder. He was leaning against one of your bedposts, his arms crossed and his eyes busy with the sight of you. You shook your head fondly and turned back to the reflector, reaching for your gloves before your holsters.

“It still makes me laugh.” Your tone was lighthearted as you pulled the leather over your hands.

Hunter’s voice was even lower than usual. “What does?”

You huffed and grabbed your first holster. “The fact you like this look more than the gowns.”

Hunter hummed, and the sound gave you pause for a moment. “I like both.” You bit back a smile and tightened the straps around your thigh. “But I get the feeling you prefer this look, and it’s that confidence that makes this… well, attractive.”

You beamed and sheathed your knife. He was getting better with his vulnerability already. “Thank you, Hunt.” You grabbed the second holster.

“I like that name, too.” You looked up for a moment to see Hunter approaching you, his helmet left behind on your bed. “The last time you said it…”

“I remember.” You raised your brow at him. “We can’t go down that road right now. We’ve already indulged enough.”

Hunter raised a hand to your chin, his stare searching yours with a breathless mixture of admiration, affection, and desire. “I’m not sure it’ll ever be enough.” He released a mirthless chuckle. “Not when I know what I know now.”

Your ears burned, and the shyness forced you to look down at the holster in your hands. “I understand.” You attached the top part of the holster to your belt. “I just have to put my people first.”

“I agree.” Hunter stopped you for a moment, his gloved hands covering yours as he nodded. “I can take it from here.”

You grinned as he secured the straps of the holster to your thigh. It was the same one he had fixed back in the ballroom what felt like ages ago. So much time together, with so much danger, really made it pass differently.

Once he was done, Hunter rose back to his full height. You holstered your blaster and set your gloved hands on his shoulder to push yourself high enough for a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Sergeant.” You pulled away with a deep breath, allowing yourself one last smile at the sight of his flushed cheeks before forcing yourself to focus. “Is the squad here yet?”

Hunter nodded and gestured with his head to your bedroom door. “They got here a minute ago or so.”

You returned his nod and stepped away to grab your hood and mask. “Do you have your poncho?”

“Yeah, it’s in my pack.” Hunter had gone to grab his helmet, which he held under his arm as he joined you once again. “You ready to get started?”

You nodded, and though you portrayed the true strength and determination you felt, you were still grateful for the reassuring touch of his hand on your back as the two of you headed into the suite. Hunter went for the doors as you stood by the holotable, waiting for Echo or Tech to plug in the plans they had all been working on. The doors opened when Hunter activated them, and he ushered his squad in with a wave of his head.

Wrecker nearly tackled the others to get in first. “There you are!” He laughed and all but ran over to you, wrapping his arms around you in a tight embrace that took your feet off the floor. You laughed in surprise and joy as you tried your best to reciprocate the unexpected gesture.

Hunter’s voice was strained with both worry and embarrassment as he spoke up. “Wrecker, put her down.”

“Aw, don’t get jealous, Hunter.” Wrecker set you down and squeezed your shoulder. “She’s one of us, now. She deserves all the same greetings.”

“I wasn’t…” Hunter clearly decided better than to argue, and he sighed as he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“You don’t greet me like that,” Crosshair insisted, setting a toothpick between his smirking lips as he made his way over.

You giggled at their brotherly bickering. “Thank you for the warm welcome, Wrecker.” You gave him a quick hug of your own. “It means a lot that you’ve all accepted me.” Your stare found Hunter’s with ease, and your smile grew. “And accepted us.”

“We knew it was coming,” Echo assured you.

“Echo is right,” Tech agreed, even as he attended to the holotable. “Neither of you were very subtle with your blossoming relationship.” He paused, his brow furrowed in severity. “Though I am sure you are aware of the rules that—.”

“That’s a later problem, Tech.” Hunter clearly wanted to move past this topic, and his reddened face was evidence of that. “Get those plans up. We’re on the clock.”

Tech focused back on the holotable, and soon, your home village appeared in blue holographic light. The fighters’ camp was outlined in red, and a few dots were scattered throughout the village. You crossed your arms and studied it as Hunter started to explain their findings.

“These are the main targets we’ve identified inside the village.” He pointed at the circle in the middle of the village. “They’ll want to hit the Republic outpost the hardest. Our guess is they’ll strike around it to divert the outpost’s forces, then they’ll move in to claim the outpost.”

You raised your brow. “What do they want with the outpost?”

“To make a statement.” It was Echo who answered your question. “To them, it’ll prove that the Republic isn’t capable of protecting Eirus, and that it’s time for new leadership.”

You shook your head. “That outpost is barely fortified. They won’t be able to prevent this whatsoever.”

“That’s why we’re here.” Hunter’s tone was both confident and hopeful, and it lent you some necessary strength. “We’re going in three groups. Two groups are gonna reinforce the perimeter, and one group is gonna hold down the outpost.”

You nodded. “I like that plan.” You tightened your grasp on your arms. “What are the groups?”

Hunter let out a soft sigh. “I want Wrecker and Crosshair together, one down low and one up high.” He looked across the holotable at Echo. “Echo and Tech need to stick together in case there’s any data we need them to retrieve.”

You started to smile at him. “Well, Sergeant, I guess that leaves me and you.”

Crosshair snickered. “Surprise, surprise.”

Hunter ignored his brother and nodded at you. “We’ll take the outpost.”

You returned his nod. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” You moved your hands to your hips and let out a steady exhale. “Have you spotted Lii Alvani or any of his associates?”

“Just the ones we memorized for the banquet,” Echo spoke up. “No sign of Alvani. I doubt he’d get his hands dirty, anyway.”

You shook your head. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“As far as the ones who’ll be coming here tonight while we’re gone…” Hunter sighed and shrugged, “we’re not sure. We got nothing useful out of the attackers in the brig, considering they were rogues.”

“They won’t send anyone important.” You tapped your fingers against your hips and caught Hunter’s gaze. “They’ll all know what choice I’m making. They won’t want to waste any of their best fighters.”

Hunter’s jaw tightened before he looked away from you. Your heart ached at the pure worry etched within the knit of his brow as he went on. “Our biggest goals on this mission are to minimize the damage from the attack, keep the villagers safe, hold down the outpost, and…” he paused, his stare finding yours again, “protect you.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s not as big of a priority as the other three.”

Hunter lifted his chin. “This is a protection job, and we’re going to follow through on that objective.”

“Not if it comes at the cost of the other three.”

Wrecker looked between the two of you with a grimace. “We can do ‘em all no problem!” He glanced pointedly at Hunter. “Just don’t fight again.”

You relaxed a bit to chuckle at him. “We’re not fighting, Wrecker.” You crossed your arms again and nodded in Hunter’s direction. “Your sergeant is just protective.”

“We are well aware,” Tech remarked.

You smirked as Hunter’s face began to flush once again. “Has he always been like this?”

Wrecker, Crosshair, and Tech all answered in unison. “Yes.”

Hunter rolled his eyes, though he maintained his severity. “I have every right to be. Those fighters would gladly see you dead.”

You softened, offering him a more reassuring nod as your arms fell to your sides. “I’ll be fine.” You searched his gaze, pleading for him to understand you as he always did. “But the safety of my people comes first, always.”

Hunter circled his jaw as he held your stare, but after a few moments, he nodded. You smiled. Of course he would understand; there was no doubt he would do the same for his squad.

“Is there anything else before we get going?” You were already setting your hood and your mask on.

“That’s really it.” Hunter and the rest of the squad were following your lead in sliding their helmets on and slipping their hooded ponchos over them. “You know we like to keep our planning to a minimum.”

“I do.” As Hunter got closer to you, you pointed two fingers against your temple. “On the outside, at least.”

Hunter tilted his helmet, but he said nothing as he instead looked around the group. The squad was fully ready to go, each one properly concealed by their dark ponchos as they waited for his order. Hunter nodded at them. “Let’s head out.”

Hunter led the way, and you joined him at his side as the others brought up the rear. Once the group had entered the darkness of the secret passageway, a gloved hand brushed yours, and you smiled as you took it. Your fingers laced through his, and you let him hold on tight for comfort. His other hand was holding his torch, guiding you through the way ahead.

You only let go once you reached the other end and stepped out into the humid twilight. Even though Hunter was still leading, the path to your village was utterly familiar, and you didn’t have to look to him for guidance. The closer you got, however, the more your dread began to build, attempting to dwindle your hopes of keeping your home safe.

When you looked around you, those hopes returned, because you weren’t alone. Clone Force 99 was more than capable of seeing this mission through with ease. You smiled to yourself and nodded.

Hunter held up his fist to stop the group as you made it to the perimeter of your home village. Just seeing it filled you with a mixture of emotions too powerful to process all at once, especially with the knowledge of what was about to happen there—all on your accord. This time, you made the move for Hunter’s hand, and he accepted it without missing a beat.

“It’s time to split up,” Hunter announced to his squad. You caught Echo’s and Crosshair’s visors drifting down to your entwined hands before they shared a look. “Echo and Tech, start at the opposite side of the village. Wrecker and Crosshair, hold your position here for now. We’re gonna need Crosshair on the lookout for us so we can get to the outpost undetected.”

Crosshair offered a two-fingered salute before he began to climb. Wrecker stood his ground below his brother’s position and nodded. “Don’t have too much fun without me.”

Hunter tilted his helmet at him. “No promises.” You smiled at Hunter reciprocating Wrecker’s playful energy. It was like watching his familiar self re-emerge, if only for a moment.

You and Hunter turned to face Echo and Tech, who waited for Hunter’s nod to set off. Echo gave your shoulder a gentle squeeze before he did so. Your chest warmed at his silent support.

“Ready?” Hunter’s voice was gentle as he gave your hand a soft squeeze.

You summoned all the strength and resolve you had built up over the years and nodded. “Ready.”

Hunter returned your nod. “I’ll be right here.”

You beamed at him. “I know.”

Hunter tilted his helmet before he released your hand to hold his blaster. You did the same, following his lead as he charged towards the village and stuck to the shadows. Once you reached the first structure, Hunter lifted his fist and spoke into the comms. “I’m detecting a path, Crosshair, but I need you to pick up on anything I don’t. There’s a lot of activity here for me to sort through.”

“Understood.”

Hunter lowered his hand to the ground and splayed out his fingers, waiting a beat before he drew up some of the dirt between his fingers. He motioned to the way ahead, and you nodded before following him. You acted as his shadow, staying no more than a foot or two apart as you snuck through the infrastructure.

It was much denser than the smaller village you had protected before, but you knew this place a lot better. Hunter’s ability to sense hidden threats was the only reason why you weren’t leading the way.

But he still didn’t know everything.

“Here.” Your voice was a curt whisper as you reached forward to grasp Hunter’s arm and pull him to the right. The two of you were enclosed in a narrow alleyway, one that twisted at the end into a path you remembered well. Hunter’s helmet started to tilt at you, but you set a firm hand on his covered chestplate. “Before you get any ideas, this is just a shortcut to get us through the busiest part of the village undetected.”

Hunter lifted his gloved hands in surrender. You chuckled and tapped his helmeted cheek before leading him ahead. Your pace slowed as you approached the bend, your back getting closer to the nearby wall as you looked to Hunter for guidance.

He nodded. “It’s clear.”

You returned his nod and stepped out into the bend, holding up your blaster as you did so. The two of you were nearly at the next bend when you heard Crosshair’s voice in your earpiece. “Stop.”

You froze where you were, and Hunter did the same alongside you. He lifted his fingers to the side of his helmet. “What is it?”

“Hostiles ahead, guarding the end of the bend.”

You cursed as Hunter looked over his shoulder. “Can we backtrack?”

“Negative. They’ve started guarding the way you came in.”

Hunter’s visor found your gaze, and his tensed shoulders told you everything his eyes would have. “Do you think they saw us?”

You pressed your lips together in thought. “It’s possible.” You shook your head. “But if they did, we would probably already be cornered.”

“They don’t know you’re there.” You hadn’t realized Hunter was keeping his comm engaged. “They’re facing outward, not inward. You’ll have to find another way out.”

Hunter looked up, and he nodded to himself before he said one last thing into the comms. “We’ll go up.” He lowered his hand and grabbed the grappling attachment from his belt. Once he had fixed it into place, he opened his left arm to you. “Hold on tight.”

You smiled and followed his gentle order, regardless of the fact you had a grappling attachment of your own on your belt. Your arms wrapped tight around his neck as he shot the line up and got you to the top. Sure, you had to stay focused on this mission, but having this self-indulgent moment of closeness to him was nicer than you could say.

Hunter was just as hesitant to put space between you once you got to the top of the building. You gave him a once-over and watched the stall in his chest before he focused on removing the attachment from his blaster. You shifted your own focus to your surroundings.

“I’m not seeing anyone up here.” You stayed low as you scanned the nearby rooftops. The outpost stood apart at the heart of the village. Thankfully, this wouldn’t be your first time infiltrating it, and having a higher angle on it would make it even easier—if you could maintain your position.

Hunter’s own visor looked around the area. “Same here.” He lifted one hand to your back to keep you low and close, and the other found the side of his helmet. “Crosshair, do they have anyone up top?”

“Negative. Their focus is on the ground assault, for now.”

Hunter nodded. “Good. We’ll keep the high ground.” He was about to drop both his hands, much to your dismay, until a new voice crackled through the comms.

“Hunter, I have tapped into their comms.” You and Hunter exchanged a look as Tech spoke, and even through his helmet, you could picture what expression he wore underneath. “They have a team en route to the planetary capitol. It will not be long before they discover that the senator is absent.”

“And that she’s here.” Hunter exhaled a breath that he tried, and failed, to keep steady. You took a hand and set it on his armored thigh, which was crouched down next to yours. “We’ll want to be at the outpost by the time that happens.”

“That is precisely what I was about to propose.”

Hunter kept his visor fixed on you as he began to give his orders. “We need to draw the forces out of the outpost. Echo, Tech, Wrecker, it’s time to have some fun. Crosshair, hold off until Wrecker needs reinforcements. We need your eyes.”

Wrecker was clearly happy to get the fight started. “Hah! Bold of you to think I’ll need reinforcements, Sarge!” You smiled to yourself and shook your head.

Hunter continued like the protective yet confident older-brother-turned-sergeant he was. “If you need to fall back, head to the outpost. We’ll reinforce it together.”

“We read you loud and clear,” Echo assured him. “Be careful in there.” His tone was laced with newfound amusement. “And stay focused.”

You hid your face against Hunter’s covered shoulder for a moment as you chuckled with him, and despite the fact you were alone, your ears began to burn in sweet embarrassment. Crosshair, as usual, didn’t miss a beat. “That mission’s already failing.”

“Speak for yourself.” Hunter was just as quick with his retort. You had to fight back another laugh. “Your eyes are supposed to be on our surroundings, not us.”

“And you’re clear for now. You wouldn’t want me getting bored up here, Hunter. That’s when I start firing shots.”

“Not this time.” Hunter’s tone, which had been amused before, reverted back to severity. You lifted your head up and reveled in the feeling of his hand brushing down your back before it fell away. “That’s an order, Crosshair.”

A sigh crackled through the comms. “Yes, sir.”

Hunter’s other hand lowered from his helmet as he focused on you again. He gestured with his head to the rooftops that stood between the two of you and the outpost in the distance. “Ready?”

You nodded, and that was all it took for Hunter to lead the way. The buildings in the village were all close together, which meant that leaping from rooftop-to-rooftop was no more than hopping over a small hurdle. Still, after each jump, Hunter glanced back to make sure you were okay. It filled your chest with that familiar, comforting warmth he always brought you, long before he had truly caught your affection.

Hunter raised his fist to stop you when you got to the last rooftop. He lowered himself even more in his crouch, and you did the same. When you made it to his side, you followed the invisible trail of his visor, observing the ragtag guards who were pouring in their measly numbers out of the outpost.

“Just like I told you.” Your voice was a whisper as you shook your head. “Barely fortified.”

Hunter shuffled even closer to your side. “Who’s responsible for them?”

You snorted. “The Prime Minister, technically. He’s supposed to be the liaison between them and the Republic.” Your free hand tightened into a fist. “I stopped receiving their requests for further aid and gear a month ago. That’s when I knew things were getting worse, and fast.”

Hunter’s fingers spread gently over your closed fist, relaxing it underneath his touch. “Well, we’re here, now. We’ll make things right.” His visor turned to you as he nodded. “This ends tonight.”

You blinked slowly up at him. “I’m glad we’re on the same page about that.”

Despite the sweetness of his reassurances, your stomach turned. The chrono was ticking relentlessly in the back of your mind, especially with Tech’s warning about the departed hunting party. You would be found out soon, and when you were… well, that was the part of the plan no one else was privy to.

Not even Hunter.

But for now, your only objective was to protect your people from this Separatist-fueled attack. You could focus on the other part of the plan when the time was right.

“They’ve cleared out.” Hunter was reaching for his grappling attachment again as the shadows of the setting sun made it even harder to see. His heightened senses obviated the need for sight. “The boys really got to work fast.”

“Either them or Alvani’s forces.” You holstered your blaster and lifted your brow. “Let me guess. ‘Hold on tight?’”

Hunter huffed and held his arm open. You clung to him even tighter than before, selfishly needing the proximity. Hunter aimed his blaster up at the elevated rooftop of the outpost and took the shot, getting the two of you to the top with ease. Before he took you over the edge, he managed to press a finger against his helmet. “Is it clear up here, Crosshair?”

You waited a beat. “Affirmative.”

Hunter wasted no time helping you up before he followed. You pulled your blaster as soon as your feet had touched the stone, lowering into a steady crouch as you scanned the area. Hunter did the same once he had joined you again, but he brought himself to stand slightly in front of you. One hand held his blaster as the other acted as reinforcement with his blade drawn.

“Okay, Sergeant.” There was a lilt of teasing to your tone. “What next?”

Hunter was all business. “This is the best place for us to be positioned. We can reinforce whoever’s left without them knowing.” He spared a glance back at you, and even in the darkness of the night and the shadow of his hood, there was a glint of light that caught his visor. “But let’s do a sweep around the perimeter up here, just to make sure we’re alone.”

You nodded and followed his lead. Hunter guided the two of you around the square rooftop, which was solely made up of narrow stone pathways. The center of the outpost’s square shape plunged downward, and at a certain point, it was separated from the rest of the galaxy by a large piece of transparisteel. The outpost had clearly been constructed with the intent of looking beautiful rather than being functional.

Considering Eirus was once a planet that swore peace above all else, that wasn’t a surprise. You scoffed under your breath at the mere thought. How far all of you had fallen, thanks to Lii Alvani.

Once you and Hunter had completed your sweep, he stopped you with his hand raised before he activated his comm. “We’re all set here, Crosshair. Get down and reinforce Wrecker.”

“Finally.” It was perhaps the most excited you had heard Crosshair this entire mission.

You chuckled and began to relax as you raised your brow at Hunter. “He’s about to be in his element.”

Hunter tilted his helmet. “They all are.”

You grinned and hoped that Hunter could sense it somehow behind your mask. “And you?”

His posture relaxed. “Well, you’re here, aren’t you?” There was the amusement you had been looking for earlier. “You know the answer.”

You pretended to check something on your blaster. “Then you should say it.”

Hunter hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Why not?”

“Because.” He sheathed his knife and pointed two fingers in your direction. “That ‘contusion’ on your neck speaks for me.”

Your face began to warm underneath your mask as you shook your head. The smile you wore faded as the reality of your surroundings contrasted with your sweet teasing. Knowing what you were hiding from him started to weigh your shoulders down.

Hunter must have grown just as anxious. “Tech,” he said with a hand lifted to the side of his helmet. “Anything new on the comms?”

“I…” there was blaster fire in the background, “... am a bit preoccupied at the moment. If Echo would be so kind as to provide me with cover…”

Echo was quick to chime in. “I’m working on it!”

You snickered as Hunter shook his helmet. After a few more heartbeats of silence, Tech returned. “Tuning in now.” You only had time for one unsteady breath before he spoke again. “It seems they are making haste. They have reported that they are only a few standard minutes within the capitol.”

Hunter cursed. “They must’ve used bikes.” He nodded to himself. “Keep me updated, Tech.”

“Affirmative.”

You closed your eyes and hung your head. The weight of what you knew was too much. To act like everything was okay around Hunter, especially with the vulnerability the two of you had shared not even a full day’s time ago, was something you could no longer do. With a light sigh, you dared to speak. “Hunter…”

“No.” You looked up to meet Hunter’s visor. He had repositioned himself in a flash, his entire front facing yours as he crouched down on one knee. “Don’t even think about it.”

Your jaw tightened. “Fighting isn’t going to end this. There’s a reason why they want me here.”

Hunter’s free hand held tight to his knee. “Don’t…”

“They don’t realize it yet, but they’re giving me a chance. When the time comes, I have to take it.”

“A chance to what? Let them have a clear shot at you?”

“No.” You remained gentle as you reached forward to set your hand over his. Your stare never strayed from his visor. “It’s a chance to reach my people. No diplomats, no half-truths, nothing like that standing between us. Just my voice and their ears.”

Hunter’s fingers danced underneath your grasp in an uncertain rhythm. “But we can fight. That’s why you brought us here.”

“Because I thought fighting was the solution. That’s what I’ve always known.” You shook your head, pleading for him to understand—just like he always did. “But it won’t work. They’ll only use it against me.”

Hunter’s visor lowered. You lifted your hand to the side of his helmet.

“You know it’s true.” You leaned close enough to rest your forehead against his helmet. “You’ll have to let me go. Okay?” You nodded at him. “I’ll be fine.”

The breath Hunter exhaled was shaky at best. “And if you’re not?”

You smiled at him, despite the fact he couldn’t see it with your mask. “I don’t have to worry about that.” You gestured with your eyes to the comlink on your belt. “Because I’ve got Clone Force 99 reinforcing me.”

Hunter’s deflated shoulders rose. He looked as if he was about to speak, but he stopped himself, his helmet turning away from you as his hand wrapped around your wrist and lowered it. He spoke before you could even question him. “They’re coming.”

You steadied yourself with a breath and nodded, raising your blaster. “How many?”

Hunter gave his helmet a tilt. “Hard to tell.”

Your heart plunged into your stomach. The goal wasn’t to win the fight, but you had to hold them off long enough to keep the outpost secure. It was vital that Hunter and the squad had this outpost when you turned yourself over to them.

Your plan formed quickly. “Let’s split up.” Hunter was about to protest when you held up your hand to stop him. “You take one side of the perimeter and I’ll take the other. We won’t be far from each other.” You gestured with your head to the nearest stone railing. “We just have to cover as many angles of their approach as possible.”

Hunter sighed before he nodded. His gloved hand took yours and gave it a gentle squeeze before he ran off. You watched him for a moment, amazed by his willingness to comply with your orders, before you walked up to the railing. Pressing your back against it, you reached for your scope attachment and locked it in place. Only then did you turn and position your blaster at the ground below.

All you could see were shadows, but after a minute or so of watching, those shadows began to move. You clocked at least a dozen of them on your side alone. You uttered a curse, but hesitated on the trigger. Your hands found your comlink and activated it. “Hunter, I’ve got some company over here.”

“Yeah, me too.” Hunter paused, and you held your breath until he responded. “Hold your fire until they engage.”

“Copy that.” You maintained your position, your blaster set to stun and your finger flexing over the trigger as you waited.

Suddenly, they all stopped, holding their positions and waiting just like you were. You furrowed your brow as an eerie chill scuttled down your spine.

You reached for the comm again. “Hunter…”

“Same thing over here.” Hunter projected his usual reassurance and confidence, but there was an alarmed undertone to his words. “Tech, anything new to report?”

“They have not yet reached the capitol.” Tech’s tone was just as matter-of-fact as usual. “Though they have been given an order not to move in on the outpost until they can confirm the senator’s whereabouts.”

You aired your stunned thoughts into the comm channel. “They know I’ll be here.”

Of course they knew. Many of these fighters were the same ones who had fought with you for years, who had made battle plans with you, and who had followed your orders. They knew you would want to be at the heart of the action.

It was all a trap, and you had allowed Hunter and his squad to run directly into it.

“New plan.” The urgency in Hunter’s voice proved he had reached the same conclusion as you. “All of you need to fall back to the outpost, now. There’s plenty of action waiting for you here.”

“Oh, yeah!” Wrecker continued to bring light to an otherwise dark situation. “We’re on our way!”

Echo matched Hunter’s own severity. “We copy, Hunter.”

It was a race against the chrono. If the rest of the squad wasn’t at the outpost before the team at the capitol discovered you were missing, then they would have to fight their way in. You fought hard to keep your focus on the unmoving shadows below, but the guilt of your oversight was making it extremely difficult.

If something happened to Hunter and his squad, it really would be your fault.

“Hey.”

You nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard Hunter’s modulated voice just behind you. After blinking a few times, you spun around to face him, your brow furrowed as you gave him an incredulous once-over. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be—.”

“They’re not going anywhere.” Hunter set a hand on your shoulder. “You need me more right now.”

Your gaze and your head both fell at his words. You tried to think of something to say, to deny that the overwhelming dark cloud of guilt and dread was looming over you, but nothing would form on your tongue. Hunter’s hand rose to your chin, and just like he often did, he tilted your head back up to face him.

“This isn’t your fault. We made this plan.” Hunter nodded, holstering his blaster in favor of holding your face between his gloved hands. “We’ve known the risks this entire time. And honestly, the higher the stakes, the better for us.” He gave his helmet a quick tilt. “This isn’t the first time one of our plans hasn't worked out. But we still have a one-hundred percent success rate, and that won’t end here.”

There were no proper words to describe how meaningful his reassurance was. You held his wrist with your free hand. “Thank you.” You gave it a gentle squeeze. “I still have to give myself up, though.”

Hunter tensed. When he spoke, it was with a heavy exhale. “I know.”

“They want me to fight, and I can’t give in to them.” You huffed a self-deprecating breath. “I’ve played right into their hands enough times already.”

“Only because they were taking advantage of the fierce loyalty you have to your people.” Hunter’s visor lowered for a moment. “Now, you get to do things on your own terms.” His helmet’s stare found yours again. “You protect your people, and we’ll protect you. Just like we signed up for.”

You searched his visor for a moment before you nodded. “You’re right.”

You smiled as you steadied yourself with a breath, but you quickly became more serious again. The what-if of everything going wrong, despite the faith you had in Hunter and his squad to protect you, was getting too real. There was more you had to say.

The comm went off before you could even part your lips. “Hunter!” Tech sounded both out of breath and alert. “They have… arrived at… the capitol. The order is… being given… now!”

Hunter pulled away and reached for his blaster as you leaned over to look at the forces below. Sure enough, they were all starting to advance once again, causing you to curse under your breath.

“All of you, go up high. The senator and I have the roof secure. We’ll hold them off on our own until you get here.”

“And then?” Crosshair wasn’t even struggling for breath.

Hunter didn’t answer right away. His visor caught your gaze before he nodded and set his hand over your back. “Stay focused on the present.”

You returned Hunter’s nod, and only then did he return to his position. You set yourself back up along the stone wall and took a deep breath. It was so easy to prepare yourself for this fight, but knowing what would come next made your chest tighten. When fighting was all you knew, could you really change the tide with just your words?

You at least had to try. You owed your people that much.

As soon as you saw the first flash of blaster fire below, you pulled your own trigger. Blue circles of bright light streamed from your blaster, illuminating the darkened night as many of them found their targets. Some of the fighters began to look up, causing you to duck behind the protection of the wall as live rounds fired in your direction.

You found your rhythm quickly. One heartbeat, two heartbeats, three heartbeats, then rise. Steady the blaster, align yourself to the scope, then open fire. Keep going until you were spotted again. Crouch down, move along the wall, and repeat. One, two, three. Rise. Steady. Fire. Duck. Repeat.

It was all you could focus on until the sound of footsteps landing on the stone surface drew your attention over your shoulder. Every muscle in your body was tense and ready to fight, but when you identified Crosshair first and Echo second, you relaxed. The relief that washed over you was nearly enough to make you physically fall backwards.

“Senator,” greeted Echo with a nod. “The other two should be—.”

“Right behind you, as always.” Tech didn’t miss a beat even as he surveyed the rooftop around you. “Seeing as your speed is never quite ideal.”

“Yeah,” Echo huffed, “because it’s too fast for you.”

“That is not what I was—.”

“Who cares?” Wrecker was the last to join the fray, and he gave Tech a shove from behind. Tech tripped a few steps and shot him a look. “We’ve got some fightin’ to do!”

You sighed and lowered your mask as you looked upon the four of them. “Not exactly. All I need you to do is help Hunter reinforce from up here.”

Crosshair was the first to sense your unspoken words. “And what will you be doing?”

You answered him just as Hunter rounded the corner. “Turning myself in.”

Echo stepped forward. “You what?”

“That strategy is not sound,” Tech insisted. “The likeliest outcomes will be either your capture for ransom or… swift death.” It was the first time you had ever heard Tech hesitate before speaking.

“You don’t have to do that!” Wrecker punched his fist into his hand. “We can take ‘em!”

You at least smiled at that. “I know.” The ticking chrono in the back of your mind made you go on faster. “But I’ve done enough fighting. I may have failed in diplomacy with Eirus’ representatives, but… I haven’t even given my people that same chance.” You nodded at the group of men standing before you. “I have to have faith in them and try.”

Silence sat amongst the squad for more heartbeats than you expected. Echo was the first to move, his visor looking beyond you. “And you’re okay with this, Hunter?”

You turned your head to look at the sergeant, who sighed before lowering his hood and removing his helmet. “I am.” His brown eyes were focused on his squad as he spoke to them. “It’s the senator’s choice to make, just like I said before. We’re standing behind her no matter what she chooses.” Hunter’s stare found yours, telling you everything he couldn’t. “Tell us what you need us to do, and we’ll do it.”

You beamed at him, despite the fierce desperation clawing at your chest. What you wanted to do was to stay here with him and the squad, if only to keep all of you at ease—but that wasn’t what you needed to do. “Set yourselves up around the perimeter of the courtyard at the front of the outpost. That’s where I’ll surrender.” You glanced at the rest of the squad and nodded. “I’ll give you a signal if I need you to engage.”

“And if you don’t signal us in time?” Crosshair pressed.

You lifted the corner of your mouth. “I trust your instincts.” You bowed your head at all of them. “Thank you, and best of luck.”

Echo walked up to set a hand on your shoulder. “You’ll need it more than us.” He gave your shoulder a soft squeeze. “But we’ll see you on the other side of this.”

You nodded, smiling in appreciation of his optimism. With a heavy breath, you turned around to face Hunter. His stare had never once left you, and though you could see devastation and dismay clearly in his dark eyes, he continued to project strength and determination. You closed the distance between the two of you, stopping just in front of him and searching his gaze.

Hunter nodded as dutifully as ever, but when he spoke, his voice was low. “Be careful.”

You returned his severity. “You too.”

You didn’t give yourself enough time to mind your audience as you reached for his face and brought his mouth to yours. You kissed him hard, knowing it would soften the harsh edges of his fierce worry for you. He kept you close, his free hand wrapped around you in a way that made you wish he would never let go.

But the truth was that you didn’t have enough time as it was. You pulled away and let your stare linger on his own before you forced yourself away from him. Your eyes squeezed shut and your fists tightened as you fought the urge to run back to him.

This was what you had signed up for when you accepted your appointment as senator. The right choice always seemed to be the hardest one, and there was no guarantee it would even pay off. But you had to try.

You descended the staircases to the lowest level of the outpost, lowering your hood and making sure all your weapons were put away. Once you arrived, you heard the sounds of the blaster fire still ringing out.

One inhale, one exhale, and one chance.

“Stop!” You raised your voice as loud as you could to be heard over the chaos.

Instantly, the forces within the outpost stopped firing, their heads whipping around to face you with pure shock. Thankfully, the collective halt of their attack stopped the others as well. You stepped forward and nodded in reassurance at those you passed.

“Stand down.” You waved a hand to gesture to their weapons. Each soldier stared at each other before obeying. You focused back on the way ahead as you stepped out of the building and raised your hands in surrender. “There’s no need for fighting.” You looked around the fighters, who kept their blasters raised at you. “I’m here now. Let’s talk this through.”

“At last.” The voice was so chilling it turned your blood to ice in your veins. Every muscle in your body went rigid as you watched a new shadow emerge from the darkness. “We’ve been waiting for you, Senator.”

The light of the outpost shined on the figure, but you didn’t need the visual to confirm that you were staring into the eyes of Lii Alvani once again.

chapter 7 ⟸ series masterlist ⟹ chapter 9

hunter tag list: @zenrobbins0021 @cw80831 @yunggoblin @maddiedrmr @Molmcb @jellybeanstacey0519

senator’s shadow tag list: @violetlilly2020 @callsign-denmark @dindadjarin

#well! idk what to say except buckle up yet again #hunter bad batch #hunter tbb #tbb hunter #hunter #the bad batch #hunter x reader #hunter bad batch x reader #hunter tbb x reader #tbb hunter x reader #senator's shadow #dindjarindiaries

62 notes · View notes

splatsvilles-fashionista · 10 months

Text

Splatoon 3 Version 6.0 Patch Notes Breakdown

Been a little bit since I did one of these, but Nintendo released the Chill Season 2023 patch notes about three hour ago, and while in terms of balance changes this is one of the smallest patches ever, it's got a ton of quality-of-life changes, so let's dig in, shall we?

So let's start from the top. In terms of new content, this patch includes a new catalog, two new stages (Robo ROM-en and Bluefin Depot), two new Specials (Splattercolor Screen and Triple Splashdown), nine new weapons, two new multiplayer songs, the new King Salmonid Megalodontia, and eleven new Tableturf cards.

Additionally, you'll note that they're including a line about giving you one Sheldon License at the end of each season. This is actually really relevant to a change coming down in line, so tuck that in the back of your mind for later.

The balance changes are all buffs, but they're relatively minor, and only six Main weapons and one Special are seeing any changes this time around.

Starting off, .96 Gal is having its ink efficiency buffed by 8%. It currently gets 40 shots on a full ink tank, so I wager this increases that number by about 5-10, but it's 5 AM my time at time of writing and I am bad at math, so I don't know for sure.

Ranged Blaster's explosions get a 15% paint buff. Note that this applies only to the final explosion and not the trail, so it's not a straight 15% paint buff.

Dread Wringer gets a 10% ink efficiency buff, and since it currently has ten sloshes on a full tank, that increases that number to eleven.

And finally, for Main Weapon changes the Heavy Edit Splatling now paints more. Unlike the Ranged Blaster's paint buff this is a lot harder to gauge, but Heavy Edit's paint can be kind of spotty and inefficient, so this is undoubtedly a good thing for it.

After that, we've got only two points-for-Special changes.

Jet Squelcher and L-3 Nozzlenose both get some points shaved off their Specials, taking their Ink Vac and Crab Tank to 180p and 190p respectively. On one hand, I am biased and hate the Jet Squelcher, and I think this buff was completely unwarranted and unnecessary, but on the other hand I love the L-3 and want only good things in life for it, so they balance each other out, in my book.

And, for the final balance change of the entire patch, we've got a Reefslider buff, as it now makes you invulnerable during its startup 13 frames faster. The thing about this change is that like, it's a buff, and that is good, but the problem Reefslider has is not getting the Special off, it's that you very rarely survive the aftermath of using it, and this does nothing to solve that. With Triple Splashdown on the horizon I think things might be rough for this Special in the future.

And that's all of the balance changes! There being so few of them indicate two things to me: That Nintendo is overall happy with the the state of the game, and that they are wary of touching anything unless they have to. And one hand I get it, after all, competitive players are currently saying that there really isn't a meta at the moment, just picking weapons you're good at and playing well, and that's probably not an environment you want to shake up too much. But on the other hand, there are a lot of things like Line Marker, Undercover Brella, and Reefslider to name a few, that could really do with some sprucing up to help them keep up with the just the middle of the pack. I think raising the bottom bar a bit higher would be to everyone's benefit.

But we've got two Specials being added, so I suppose now's not the time to rock the boat too much. We'll see how things have shaken out come the mid-season patch in January.

But the balance changes are a very small part of these patch notes, and nowhere near the most interesting, so let's keep moving on.

Anarchy Series and X Battles are receiving a whole slew of changes, the most prominent of which are some new badge rewards for win streaks and attaining high X Rankings. Additionally, matchmaking in X Battles is being changed to more strictly separate people with high and low X Ranks, as well as allowing more team compositions. To cut a long story short, weapons have a set of internal values that the game uses during matchmaking to try and balance the team compositions. Matchmaking in high-power X Rank infamously takes a very long time, so I have to imagine that this change aims to speed things up by making the matchmaking more lenient on that front.

Salmon Run, in addition to the new King Salmonid, is getting some significant changes, starting with some changes to the Specials:

Kraken Royale and Triple Splashdown are being added to the pool of available Specials. Additionally, Mr. Grizz has finally agreed to always provide at least two workers on every team with a long-range Special to handle all the pesky Stingers and Flyfish. Be sure to thank your local union representative the next chance you get.

This change is particularly spicy. Your Salmon Run stage badges will now boost your starting difficulty on their respective stages, adding more incentive to play beyond the two superbonuses, as well as making the grind for future badges easier. This certainly gives me more motivation to go for those VP 400+ badges.

You'll now be able to tell what King Salmonid is present during each Shift, and the Salmometer will change to match it, as well. Can you believe they didn't change that when they added Horrorboros?

Also I am curious what this means for those Shifts where the King Salmonid was random. Will the Salmometer become a question mark? Are they not gonna do those anymore? We'll have to wait and see.

But this next change, is a big one, and it's for, what else, Big Run:

Big Run trophy requirements will now be set in advance, and no longer scale off top 50%, 20% and 5% player results.

I am in two minds about this change. On one hand, I always thought that people complaining about overfishers in Big Run were kind of petulant and entitled, especially when the rewards were as minor as locker decorations and badges. Maybe that's mean-spirited of me, but there was never a way for me to read it as anything but people demanding to be given the same reward as the people working the hardest without putting in the effort themselves.

But on the other hand, the 5% cutoff has been steadily rising as overall Big Run participation decreased, which is just a natural result of time passing and casual players falling off the game, nothing weird there, but this means that the top becomes more stacked, further disincentivizing casual players as getting even the bronze trophies becomes harder and harder for them. Giving the players much clearer and more achievable goals will likely serve to pull a lot of people back into Big Runs, and that is undoubtedly a good thing.

And hey, I said the rewards weren't worth getting upset over, and by that same metric, I don't think it's worth getting upset over more people getting them, either. All the better, if it makes more folks happy. And as for the people who do want to grind their hearts out, well:

There's still some recognition for that, too.

So that's the gist of the Salmon Run changes, so let's finish up with some miscellaneous changes.

Remember how I told you to keep that bonus Sheldon's License in mind for later?

Players who own every currently available weapon will now be able to trade extra licenses in for Shell-Out Tokens. In other words, that extra license serves as a failsafe so you don't lock yourself out of buying future weapons by spending all your licenses on gacha rolls.

The Splatfest Battle Pro queue is receiving the same matchmaking changes as X, presumably for much the same reasons.

And finally, the most important change of all:

WANDERCRUST IS BACK!!! YEAH BABY!!!! WOO!!!

#splatoon 3 #chill season 2023 #salmon run #salmon run next wave

141 notes · View notes

jwillbiteyourfingersoff · 4 months

Text

Ch.2 : Understanding You

Whats a sheltered vault dweller to do when their kicked from their home? How should they feel? What crushing pain and greif must they feel? More importantly, how do those damn arm-thingys work?

Norm Maclean/Gn!Surface!Reader

Ch: 1

This vaulty is… something else. Hes quiet, reserved, and just generally uninterested in talking with or interacting with me. Hes been feverishly organizing and reorganizing his bag for the few hours we've spent in the same building, only stopping to pace and stare at his arm-thingy. Speaking of…

“Whats that thing on your arm?” I ask, languidly laying on the palette in the corner. His head swivels over to me, my voice breaking relative silence aside from the whistling of the wind. He looks down at his arm-thingy again, looking back over at me blankly for a moment before his brain stops loading.

“My… my pip boy?” He points to it on his arm, the chunky metal device snuggly fit to his wrist. The soft green glow illuminating the bottom of his face.

“Yeah, yeah, pip-thingy.” I wave my hand around in the air before pointing at it myself. “Whats it do?” I ask with genuine curiosity, never having encountered a vault dweller before. They were rare to see on the surface, often shunned or killed for the unique things they carried. I was quite honestly surprised he hadn't been killed yet. He hesitates for a moment, scanning me up and down before walking over to me and sitting down next to me.

“It… it does a lot of stuff.” He angles his pip-boy towards me. “You have a couple buttons, a few knobs…” He scrolls through a couple screens before one catches my eye.

“Wait, whats that special thing?” I poke his arm a couple times to get him to stop scrolling and scroll back.

“Oh uh…” He thinks for a moment “Its like… my ability report. Each letter stands for an ability or trait, like intelligence.” he points at the big I that has an 8 in its column. “It has an eight, which means I’m ranked an eight out of ten on intelligence in my vault. We get our rating based on a menagerie of tests we do every year or so.” He looks over his other scores, flipping past every letter.

“Soooo, what I’m getting from your little screen is,” I wave my hands expressively around before standing up, bending back down a few inches from his face to make eye contact. “You're a smartass.”

He chuckles, a first for the entire time we've been sitting here together, and rolls his eyes. “You could say that, I suppose…” He scootches back, getting up and looking down at me as he studies my face, then back down at his pip-boy. “I don't know why I still have it at this point.” He walks past me, his face dropping from the playful smirk he had on before back to the blank stare hes had most of the time we’ve been sitting together. “It shouldn’t really belong to me anymore, I’m not really a vault dweller at this point.” My head tilts to the side, one of my eyebrows shooting up in question.

“You’re wearing the vaulty uniform and got the vaulty tech, why wouldn’t you be a vaulty?” I roll my eyes at him, clearly not buying into what I’ve assumed is an over dramatization. He sighs, staring at me for a moment, opening and closing his mouth periodically seemingly trying to think of a retort. He can't. We revert back down into silence again, this time though, he's not pacing. He stares off into the wall in front of him. I start to feel… bad. We had been bantering before and I knew vaultys could be sensitive but this felt different than someone getting their hackles up over nothing.

“Ya know,” I begin speaking, digging an arm into my bag and rooting around, “I’m technically not supposed to have these guns or this radway, but I stole it from my old guild.” I pull out two good quality blasters and a good ten radway packs from my bag, smiling lazily at him. He gawks at me for a second before shaking his head and getting a bit aggravated.

“Why are you telling me? Is this a threat or some kind of weird flex?” He yells at me, irritated and realizing my mistake I put that things back in my bag before I respond. He looks genuinely hurt, like I’d struck a fresh nerve.

“Look, I’m not trying to flex on you.” I crawl over to him across the ground, sitting cross legged a few feet across from him. “I wanted to show you that… well I guess, I’m not judging you.” I lean back on my hands, keeping eye contact. “Whatever you did, or whatever they did, or whatever happened regardless, I get getting kicked from a community you thought you could be a part of.” He stares into my eyes for, his blank expression felt like it burned and my face turned red in embarrassment. Had I said something wrong or ignorant? Shit, that was not my intention at all.

“Ok.” He finally responds. With the simple reply, he lays down, turning away from me in a ‘this conversation is over’ kind of way. For the first time in a while, I feel a bit of genuine dejection. I mean weren't vaultys supposed to be all welcoming and sweet? Naive and kind beyond any logical reasoning? What did I do to make this dweller so mad at me? The thoughts spun in my head as I layed down across the room, taking one last look at the back of his head before closing my eyes for another night of restless sleep.

So sorry on the long wait! Schools almost to an end for me (I got less than a month) so you can imagine the work I've been having to do. Anyways, I'm happy to continue this series considering how well it was received! Thanks to everyone who left notes on chapter one, yall were the serotonin boost I needed :3

#fanfic #norm maclean x reader #norm maclean x gender neutral reader #norm maclean x gn reader #norm maclean fanfiction #fallout x reader #fallout tv series

65 notes · View notes

starstruckunknown-princess · 5 months

Text

Magnolia - Din Djarin x Reader

Magnolia (Magnolia) - Meaning: Dignity, perseverance

Summary: Din is blackmailed by Peli into going to the doctor for the first time since he took his Creed. The doctor is not what he expected.

Pairing: Din x Reader (3rd person POV)

Word Count: 2386

Warnings: 3rd person POV, Peli being a bit of a bully, no Grogu, probably inaccurate Star Wars medical practices, Din being mysterious, tattooed!Din, needles/hyposprays, brief helmetless!Din but not in front of reader, awkward!Din warming up to someone, slight touch-starved!Din if you squint

Day 16 is the longest so far! This was supposed to be the first chapter of a series featuring Din and a doctor love interest, but I think it works here too. Also, today is my anniversary with my partner, so I'm dedicating this to him! 13 years together, 9 married. Holy shit, where does time go?

In Bloom Masterlist

Likes, Comments, Reblogs are ALWAYS appreciated! ❤️

“I don’t wanna hear it, Mando!” the older woman exclaimed, “Doc, you here? Sit down, would ya? You’re makin’ me nervous. Doc?”

A modulated voice said something she couldn’t make out as she made her way out of the exam room to the waiting area. Peli was facing her, hands of her hips, but her attention immediately went to she silver-clad form of a man sitting on a chair in her waiting room. His head was covered with a shiny helmet, his gloved hands resting on his thighs, and even though she couldn’t read his expression on his face she could see the tension in his form.

“Good, you’re here,” Peli said to her, “My friend Mando here,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to the man, “has just informed me that he hasn’t been to a doctor since he was a child, and in his line of work that seems really stupid so I dragged him here, you got time for an exam?”

“Of course,” she said, “but I feel it needs to be said that I don’t usually perform exams on unwilling patients…over the age of 8, that is.” She smirked. And the Mandalorian’s helmet tilted as if in disbelief. He rose to his feet, his full height and breadth unfolding to take up much more space than she’d initially thought.

“Fine,” the modulated voice said, ”Let’s get this over with.”

Peli’s smirk read of something deeper than concern for her beskar-clad friend, but she didn’t have time to parse it for meaning as the Mandalorian made his way toward where she stood in the doorway between the exam room and the waiting room. She stepped aside and held out an arm to usher him into the small room.

“Thanks, Doc,” Peli said, “Send him back my way when you’re done, I’ve got his ship.”

“Will do,” she replied, now understanding more about how Peli was able to manhandle such a large, broad person into her clinic.

The bell above the front door jingled as Peli left, leaving her alone with the Mandalorian. She would’ve been more uncomfortable if it weren’t for the numerous sharp instruments within her reach, as well as the hidden blaster strapped under the exam table.

One couldn’t be too careful on Tatooine.

The Mandalorian was looking around the small room, possibly assessing for threats until she cleared her throat, getting to work mode.

“So I think we can just run a few tests and do a quick workup, nothing invasive. That should placate Peli, at least.”

“Okay,” he said through the modulator, standing stiffly in the middle of the room as she busied herself with grabbing a holopad and passing it over to him.

“Fill this out,” she said quickly, busying herself with grabbing supplies for a blood draw and a retinal scan.

“Um,” the voice said from behind her and she paused, turning toward her patient, “I, uh, I don’t know my birth date.”

“That’s okay, just an approximate age is fine.” She went about her business, prepping a few vaccines and a bacta hypospray just in case while his gloved fingers tap-tapped on the holopad. When she was finished, she turned and leaned back against the counter and watched him as he finished.

It didn’t take a doctor to note the obvious power of the Mandalorian’s body, half-bent over the holopad on the exam table. She scanned his posture, the way he held himself as he tapped with his right hand and noted a few things she wanted to mention. With how well-muscled he had to be under the heavy beskar, she figured he had a physically demanding job, and it was then she remembered Peli mentioning a bounty hunter friend of hers.

He was silent as he finished and passed her the holopad. Under the ‘Name’ field he’d put simply, ‘Mando’ and she couldn’t help the smile that rose on her face. As a race, Mandalorians were notoriously secretive.

Scanning the rest of the info sheet, she saw he mentioned back pain and bad knees as places of concern. Other than that, she didn’t see anything glaringly off.

“Okay, this all looks about right for your estimated age, but I still want to take some blood and update your vaccinations,” she glanced at him from under her lashes and he grunted in what she assumed was assent. “Can you take your, um,” she gestured to the armor adorning his thick arms, not knowing what they were called, “arm pieces off? I’ll need to get in your veins there.”

The Mandalorian hesitated, going eerily still. If she wasn’t mistaken, she thought she heard a sharp intake of breath through the modulator. Tension rose within the room, but she was well-trained so she turned her back to him to offer a little privacy and used the moment to sanitize her hands and pull on a pair of exam gloves, pleasantly satisfied when she heard the clanking of armor being shed and the heavy pieces being carefully placed on the table.

She turned back around and watched him rolling up the sleeves of his flight suit, exposing his muscular arms up to his biceps and she had to remind herself that she was a professional — salivating over a patient was unethical. With a deep breath she went back into Doctor mode, assessing his arms for easy-to-access veins.

A hiss sounded from him when she palpated his inner elbow and she looked up at his blank t-shaped visor.

“Did that hurt?” she asked.

The helmet shook, “Cold hands.”

She smiled, “Sorry, should’ve warned you. Kind of ironic isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Considering it’s hotter than a Mustafarian volcano outside,” she explained, pressing further and finding a juicy vein. “Little pinch,” she said, using the prepped needle to pierce his golden-brown skin. If she wasn’t mistaken, she glimpsed the bottom edge of a tattoo hiding under his rolled-up sleeve.

When the vial was full, she pulled the needle out and took some of the prepared bacta gel across the small hole in Mando’s skin, then put a small bandage over it. “That can come off in half an hour. Let me get this sample going so I can get your results before you leave, then we can do the retinal scan.”

She moved toward the far side of the room toward her lab equipment, but a large hand on her wrist stopped her.

“Retinal scan?” Mando asked, helmet tilted in concern.

“Yeah, it’s really quick. Just to make sure your brain function is normal, no big deal,” she explained with a shrug. With how still he once again was, she guessed it was not, in fact, not a big deal to him.

From what little she knew of Mandalorian culture, their armor and weapons were sacred to them but he’d already taken off his arm pieces. Maybe something about the helmet was different?

“I…my Creed, uh, I can’t remove my helmet,” he said haltingly, removing his hand from her wrist.

It was her turn to tilt her head in confusion, “What, like ever? How do you shower?”

“I can take it off, but not in front of other living beings. If I did, I couldn’t put it back on.”

“Oh,” she breathed. She nibbled on her lower lip as she tried to think of a solution. She didn’t want to let him leave without the scan but at the same time she couldn’t ask him to break his Creed for a fifteen-second scan.

“Ah! Okay,” she exclaimed as an idea came to her. She grabbed the scanner off of its charger and put it on the exam table in front of him. “I’ll step out, you remove your helmet and run the scan yourself. It’s easy,” she said, sensing his hesitation, “Push this button here and hold the scanner in front of your eyes until it double beeps, about fifteen seconds, then you put your helmet back on and I’ll come back. Think that’ll work?” she asked, looking up at his visor hopefully.

After a few seconds, he replied “Yeah. That’ll work.”

Her smile widened and she nodded, “Let me get your blood tests going and then I’ll step out.”

Din’s POV

This was the exact reason he hadn’t been to a doctor since taking the Creed. Every Mandalorian covert had their own stash of medical supplies and were trained in first aid, so it never seemed important. He’d been cursing himself for mentioning his back pain to Peli until stepping into the Doctor’s office.

The fact that she was holding his ship pretty much hostage until he went to the Doctor was only part of what got him here.

To her credit, the Doctor had been respectful and considerate so far — her solution to his issue with the brain scan was simple, but spoke volumes to her character. Having only known her for a few minutes he could tell she was trustworthy, even though something in her eyes spoke of some hidden truths.

Not wanting to keep her waiting in the other room for long, he double checked his surroundings before removing his helmet, pushing the button on the scanner that she’d shown him, and waiting for the ‘beep-beep’ to signal it had finished.

He replaced his helmet and called her back into the room. She swept back in and smiled at him.

“That didn’t hurt too much, did it?” she asked in a joking tone that made him smirk. She was cheeky, this doctor.

“Virtually painless,” he said.

“Good, wouldn’t want to completely scare you off,” she joked again but his breath caught in his throat. She placed the scanner on its charging port and looked at the screen in front of her, assessing the results with a furrow in her brow.

Din took a moment to finally look at her. He’d already noticed how pretty she was, hair drawn back and up off her neck to combat the heat of the Tatooine suns. Her eyes were sharp and intelligent, and every time she’d looked his way he felt like she could see through the beskar he wore. Unknowingly, she’d already locked eyes with him a few times despite his helmet. While she looked over his results, she absentmindedly played with a necklace — some sort of pendant on a long silver chain — he didn’t see any more jewelry.

“Well, your brain looks normal. No irregularities or past concussions showing up, but I guess that’s what the helmet is for,” she said, glancing his way. He nodded.”You mentioned some back pain, which is normal for your age, but I can take a look and maybe get you some pain supplements.”

He nodded again and swept his cape aside, gathering it over one shoulder and exposing his jetpack.

“Well,” she said with a chuckle, “that’ll do it.” She grabbed a different scanner while he took off his jetpack. His entire spine straightened as he felt her fingers ghost along his lower back.

“May I?” she asked, and he swallowed hard, mouth suddenly dry.

“Yes.”

She gently lifted the back of his flight shirt, the coldness of her fingers raising goosebumps along his arms. The scanner she held chirped, and she dropped his shirt back into place.

“Just what I thought,” she said as he pulled the jetpack back on. “Looks like it’s muscular, not spinal, so I’ll throw some anti-inflammatory salve, and if you’d like, some pain supplement. A mild one,” she added.

“Thank you,” he said.

She crossed to a cabinet, bending down to open it and Din averted his gaze. From inside she extracted a small tin and a glass jar, cursing when she found it empty.

“Kriffing hell,” she muttered, “Sorry, looks like I’m out of the pain supplement. Outer Rim supply lines suck.”

“That’s okay,” he offered, but she was insistent.

“I feel bad now, getting your hopes up like that. I have something stronger but I figured with being a bounty hunter you’d want to keep your wits about you.”

“I appreciate that. The salve will do fine for now.”

“I mean, if you ever find yourself in a trading outpost or on Arvala-7, you could get some for yourself. I’ll write down the name.” She busied herself with that for a moment before another mechanical buzzing caught her attention.

“Ah, your blood results!” Fluttering past, she slipped the piece of flimsi into his gloved hand. He caught a whiff of her scent — night-blooming flowers and citrus, with a tinge of sweat.

She pursed her lips, and Din wanted to reach over and pull the bottom one loose with his thumb. All her touches had awakened something in him that he usually kept locked away. “Hmm…looks like you’re a little low on Potassium and a few different vitamins, but no major illnesses or viruses, which is good. No malignant bacteria hiding in your bloodstream either, no parasites…damn, that beskar keeps everything out, doesn’t it?”

She glanced his way, but kept on talking, “I’m still going to recommend a few vaccines, and a bit of a diet change. Let me guess, you mostly survive on ration packs?”

He nodded, “I do.”

“I’m going to suggest eating some more fruits in general, that’ll help with the vitamin deficiencies and the potassium. Ration packs are pretty nutritious, but with your lifestyle you burn through certain things quicker than others, so it’s best to supplement the packs. Just a few more hypos and you’ll be all set to go back to Peli with a clean bill of health. Any other questions or concerns?”

Part of him wanted to ask if she was busy later that night, especially when they locked eyes under his helmet. His mouth went dry, and all he could manage was a shake of his head.

He cleared his throat, “No, no. Thank you, Doctor.”

“You are very welcome, Mando,” she said, handing him a small bag with papers and the salve inside.

“Din,” he offered before he could think about it.

“Hmm?”

He cleared his throat again, “My name is Din.”

Her smile was radiant and Din felt a flutter in his chest. “Nice to meet you, Din. Whenever you need me, I’m here.”

He reached out and shook her proffered hand. “I’ll be sure to take you up on that, Doc.”

#writing challenge #fanfiction #in bloom #fluff #star wars fic #mando x reader #mando x you #the mandalorian #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin fic #din djarin x oc

69 notes · View notes

badbatchsprincess · 5 months

Text

Heated ~ pt.11

Pt.1 ~ Pt.2 ~ Pt.3 ~ Pt.4 ~ Pt.5 ~ Pt.6 ~ Pt.7 ~ Pt.8 ~ Pt.9 ~ Pt.10 ~Pt.11

Masterlist

Summary: This is an ABO Bad batch!Poly x Omega Reader smut with a plot. This takes place as an AU before order 66. Y/N previously served under the 501st before being transferred to Special Forces 99. This is her adventure with these rowdy Alphas in a quickly changing universe.

THIS IS AN ABO AU ABOUT THE BAD BATCH (NO CANON OMEGA!) Due to the unfortunate situation of her name being Omega… Omega the child from the canon series is not going to be apart of this fanfic/porn with a plot. I feel obligated to put this warning in because it makes my skin crawl thinking anyone could make that mistake.

Warnings: We got some action, some canon typical violence, and a little angst. Shits about to get wild from here on out hold onto your pants. Hunter's growing breeding kink and Crosshair's riffle.

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

"We’re literally never going to get shore leave," Wrecker groaned, picking up Gonky and putting the battery droid into the Marauder. It seemed like the repairmen were able to get all new parts installed overnight, leaving the Marauder in pristine condition.

"They didn’t tell you why we needed to go to Kamino?" Crosshair asked, busy reloading the armory with a new crate of weapons.

"No," Echo shook his head.

"Why do I need to come to Kamino?" You chirped, sipping on your to-go cup of caff and breakfast.

"Your presence was requested," Echo shrugged.

"I didn’t even think your creators knew about me," you pondered.

"It is strange," Tech responded from the cockpit. "They don’t usually like civilians in Tipoca City."

"Do you think it’s something bad?" You took a bite of your egg sandwich.

"There is no indication of such things, but who is to know really," Tech mused, adjusting the settings on the console to his liking.

"Let’s get a move on," Hunter ordered. "The faster we get there, the faster we can get back."

"Sounds good to me!" You slid off the crate and grabbed your brand new medic pack, double-checking all your requested supplies were in there, along with the backup supply in the ship’s storage.

You felt Tech start up the engines and ran to the front to strap in.

It wasn’t long before the Marauder was up in the air and zooming through hyperspace. It would be a few hours before you entered Kamino airspace, so you decided to busy yourself and study the way Crosshair cleaned Firepuncher.

Crosshair seemed to be enjoying your attention, making sure to show you all the nooks and crannies that are usually missed. He even let you take the little brush with the cleaning solution and do a few pieces yourself.

"Atta girl," he praised as you followed his instructions to a T.

You smiled, handing him back the tools. He reassembled the weapon, giving it one last pass with the cleansing cloth before oiling the moving mechanisms. He pulled out a hand wipe, cleaning the oil and blaster residue off his own fingers, before taking your hands and cleaning yours. He tossed away the dirtied wipe before taking your chin in his hands, plucking his toothpick from his lip, and tilting your face up to meet his. He bent down to press a loving kiss to your lips, making your cheeks heat.

He popped the pick back between his teeth and took Firepuncher with him to the cockpit. You shamelessly watched the lithe sniper saunter out of the room.

"He’s only like that with you," Hunter smirked at you.

"I doubt that," you sighed, cleaning up the dining table with a damp towel.

"I’m serious," he crossed his arms. "You’re good for him."

You rolled your eyes. "Hardly."

"He let you clean Firepuncher," Hunter smiled. "Safe to say you’re the only one he’s ever let do that."

"I’ll keep that in mind," you said, putting the rag into the dirty hamper.

"He’s never let anyone get close to him. I mean, none of us have really. We didn’t exactly have an easy upbringing," Hunter shared, trying to open up a bit more, but it was obvious it had hurt him too. "Crosshair is the youngest. He struggled the most with all the ostracization. I think it’s what made him so cold and severe, but he seems to have taken a liking to you. I noticed the way he changed slightly when you joined. Like how he started bringing you things when we were out."

"So he was the one leaving them on my cot?" You smiled, thinking back to all of the little trinkets, stones, or sweets.

"You’re getting through to him," Hunter said, standing up and walking over to you. "It’s more than we ever could have."

"He’s your brother," you sighed, looking down at Hunter’s lips.

“Exactly.” He whispered pressing forwards until your lips met. You purred into Hunter’s mouth feeling him bring one hand up to support your cheek as he kissed you passionately. He then deepened the kiss urging you to open your mouth slightly for his tongue to explore. You too explored, you wanted to memorize everything Hunter liked, well really what each alpha liked, but you decided you’d start with Hunter. You already knew Tech and Crosshair liked when you’d brat a little and that would end up in your submission to them. Hunter however, seemed a lot more like Wrecker in that he was mainly interested in your pleasure… but you were determined.

You ran your hands to the nape of his neck and massaged there feeling him moan into your mouth. Okay, nape, check. You smiled tugging him further down do you were laid out on the table with your legs wrapped around his waist while he bent over pinning you to the surface.

He surged forwards pushing his cod piece into your clothed core. You whined and squirmed against him feeling yourself get turned on by the weight at your apex.

You moved your hand from his name to around the front of his neck giving it an experimental squeeze. He gave you a soft warning growl which made you immediately continue your journey south. Okay no choking for him.

You hand your hands over his chest plate wishing you could feel the hard planes of his chest.

Hunter pulled back looking down at you with a suspicious smirk, “What are you going little one?”

You tried catching your breath and smiled back, “Nothing.”

“Hmm.” He eyed you before diving back in to capture your lips. When you leaned up to reciprocate, he snatched up your neck and slammed you back down to the table making your eyes widen in surprise. He squeezed. Not hard enough to hurt you but just enough that it made your stomach flip and your heart race… maybe he was more dominant than you gave the Sargent credit for.

“Are you… studying me?” He gave you a wolfish grin.

You swallowed looking up into his amber eyes, “Maybe…”

He grinned keeping you pinned to the table.

“Mesh’la…” He leaned down to lick at your gland under his thumb. You whined grinding down on his codpiece. He stood back up rubbing small circles into the gland making you writhe on the table, “You’re adorable little ‘mega.”

You felt yourself getting wetter by the second, absolutely destroying your panties. Maker you wanted him so badly.

“J-just want to know how to make you feel good.” You whimpered trying to get some kind of release for the tension thrumming through your entire system.

He sighed a laugh leaning over you again giving you some mercy by grinding into you. You moaned. Between the rubbing between your thighs and the stimulation to your mating gland, you were on the edge of cumming.

“Such a perfect little omega aren’t you?” He hummed watching you start to sweat. He could smell your slick and hear the way your heart hammered in your chest and he knew you were being edged, “Always so concerned with your alphas.”

You cried out grabbing at the wrist around your neck and using the heel of your boots to force him even closer to you. He chuckled at your attempts to buck harder into him.

“Do you want to cum pip?” He drawled.

“Yes sir.” You whimpered desperate for this torture to end.

“Well because you’ve been such a good girl,” He used his free hand to unbutton your pants and slide them inside towards your pulsing core. You nearly screamed when he finally started to rub tantalizing little circles into your aching clit.

“Cum omega.” He commanded.

You gasped feeling the sudden rush of your orgasm take over you. You arched up off the table pressing into him further. He only stopped stimulating your gland when you had finally worked through your orgasm.

He smiled down as he released your neck and buttoned up your pants.

“You feeling good, makes me feel good ‘mega.” He pushed his forehead into yours, “But if you want me to be more dominant like my brothers then we can do that too.”

You hummed, “I only want what you want Hunter, whatever feels right.”

He flashed his teeth at you again, growling, “What feels right… what feels right is me sinking my teeth right here little one.” He thumbed your glad again making you shudder, “as much as I want to totally loose myself, I know I can’t… You make me feel feral Ad’ika. You scent, it drives me wild.”

You starred up at him through your heavy eyes feeling your heart start to beat quickly again.

“You want to mate me Hunter?” You whispered seductively tilting your neck back so he could grip you again.

You watched his eyes dilate at your words, “fuck mesh’la.” He sighed and shook his head trying to snap himself out of it, “I want to pup you.” He admitted and pressed his other hand to your abdomen, “Fucking Layla got me thinking about it.” He massaged your belly imagining what you’d look like swollen with his pups.

You studied him… he seems to have quite the breeding kink, a mischievous smile crept up onto your lip, “boy or girl Hunter?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from your belly into your heady eyes.

“Boy or girl?” You repeated.

“Girl… definitely a girl.” He kissed you pressing you back down to the table.

“Is that why your hindbrain cut out my implant?” You giggled and squirmed under him, “You want to knock me up?”

“M’guess so.” He mumbled nuzzling your gland.

You just sighed in contentment enjoying the way he mouthed at your shoulder keeping a firm grip on your side.

“Better keep those fangs to yourself Hunter.” Tech groused passing by data pad in hand.

Serge sighed sitting up finally snapping out of the trance you had put him in.

“Sharing is caring.” Crosshair stepped into the hallway to tease his older brother.

“You’re gonna make him territorial.” You lulled your head to the side to look at the sniper.

Crosshair chuckled, “He’s always been territorial.”

“As are you.” Tech stepped into the doorway.

“Byproduct of being an alpha.” Crosshair flashed a fangy smile at you. You giggled sitting up making Hunter stand.

“I’m not territorial.” Tech looked up from his search.

You scoffed, “Oh yes you are.”

“What?” He was confused, “When have I displayed territorial tendencies.”

“When I first saw the 501st after joining you.” You pushed Hunter back so you could saunter over to Tech, “In 79’s, I saw that look in your eye when I danced with regs, and then when I almost drowned, you got your punches in. Don’t think I didn’t see that.” You smirked poking him in the chest plate.

“Is that considered territorial?” He looked up at his brothers.

“Sounds about right.” Hunter nodded. Crosshair agreed.

You smirked and crossed your arms, “Then you and Cross marked me up on Mimban. Had those women thinking I was in trouble.”

He widened his eyes realizing you were right.

“It would seem I do display territorial behavior.” He nodded, “I must look into this.” He walked off typing furiously into his data pad.

You just shook your head laughing and walked back to lean on the table.

“How much longer to Kamino?” Hunter asked Crosshair.

“Half an hour.”

“Alright, let’s get ready to doc.” Hunter ushered the two of you out and into the cockpit.

~~~

"Where are you taking me?" you asked the Kaminoan.

"We need your assistance in the medical wing. You're the only one with experience regarding the spice chemical compounds," she replied.

You glanced at Hunter, who gave you an approving nod. Swallowing nervously, you agreed to follow the female alien, feeling a little uneasy about leaving your pack with this unfamiliar woman. Looking back, you noticed they were still watching you as you disappeared down the hallway.

"What is your name?" the Kaminoan asked.

"Y/N Y/L/N," you responded, clutching the straps of your med pack, feeling a little like you were back in school.

All around you, shinies and cadets marched in perfect lines. Every few clones would break their focus to peer at you. You ignored them, following behind the Kaminoan called Nala Se.

As you neared the medical wing, you noticed a group of pacing soldiers in blue.

"Fives?" you called out to him. He looked at you, confused at first, before walking over to you.

"CT-5555," Nala Se nodded.

He nodded back before embracing you. You hugged him back, stepping up on your tiptoes to whisper in his ear, "Layla got your memo. Echo and I read it."

"Did Layla send you?" he whispered back before standing upright, "It’s been so long, kid. How are you doing?"

You scrunched your brow in confusion for a second before realizing he was prompting you to play along. "I’m doing fine. How’s Rex?"

"Eh, you know... as good as he was after Umbara," Fives said, sounding too cheerful for referring to THE Umbara siege. You nodded, understanding that Rex and the boys weren’t doing well and that there was some sort of conspiracy at play.

You double-tapped your arm, signaling a "no" in reference to his first question. "Oh, that’s great. I’ll have to spend some time with him when we’re back on rotation."

He flashed you a sign he and the boys used to let you know to stay quiet in tough situations. "I know he’ll love that. You were always his favorite civ."

"Hah," you smiled, giving another signal that you understood the mission. "Well, let the others know I’m sending my love."

"Of course, Tiny," he embraced you again and whispered, "Don’t trust the Kaminoans," before pulling back with a charming smile.

You smiled too, giving his arm a squeeze.

Nala Se continued on, and you followed after her, giving Fives one more glance before turning left and disappearing into the medical facility.

"Did you serve under CT-7567?" Nala Se asked while approaching her desk.

"Yes. I was a medic for the 501st before the 99’s," you replied, using your military-trained voice.

"They seem to like you," she remarked.

You didn’t know if she was trying to pry information out of you. The way she spoke seemed to indicate so. "I’m the only one not giving them orders and fixing their injuries. The position tends to make friends."

"Friends," she repeated, picking up her data pad. "After the incident on Crait, we’ve been trying to ascertain a sample of the same compound used. I was wondering if you could give me a recount of the events. Most of our clones have been altered to withstand almost all stressors, diseases, and injury. As I’m sure you’re well aware, they’re stronger than most natural-born humans. This is their design. It is a concern of ours to have this weakness in them. We wish to alter our work for future cloning and perhaps even develop a cure for the battlefield."

You sighed before crossing your arms and bringing back the information to the forefront of your mind. "Well, I didn’t know what happened until it was too late. Hu-uhh-CT-9901 later recounted the events that led to the dosing. There was already a Republic team researching the findings based on suspicious reconnaissance information. They went missing, and my unit went to retrieve them and their findings. I rarely leave the ship, so one second everything is fine, then the next…” You swallowed, trying to find the words to appropriately explain what occurred. “CT-9901 had incapacitated CT-1409 while trying to get to me. The drug affected his alpha instincts and rendered him feral. I had the implant, but due to his enhanced scent, he could still pick up on my pheromones, and then it was a struggle until I shot him. It was the only thing that was going to stop him. The others kept him tied up in the brig until it was all out of his system. It took almost a day."

"In the report, it said he had cut out your implant," Nala Se read through it.

"That is correct."

"Then you were able to get medical assistance aboard General Skywalker’s vessel."

"That is correct."

"Did CT-9901 have any lingering effects?" she asked.

"Not that I’m aware of," you shook your head.

"It’s not often we have a human female omega in this facility. Is it alright if I take some blood samples for testing purposes?"

You nodded, "Sure."

She sat you down on a chair before grabbing the injector site. She cleaned your arm before pressing the machine to your skin.

She took the samples and placed them in the care of a medic droid.

"Is there anything else I can assist with?" you asked, standing up and pressing a bandage to the small wound.

"Yes, actually. We had a clone recently turn on a Jedi and unfortunately kill her. We’re suspecting it was caused by this bioweapon altering his behavior."

You steeled the expression that was begging to come out on your face. You kept a neutral expression, but deep down, you knew it was deeper than this. The drug may make alphas become feral, but to kill a Jedi, that wasn’t adding up.

"He killed a Jedi?" you clarified.

"Yes," Nala Se wasn’t giving any more information.

Was that why she was asking about Hunter cutting you? You knew you were going to have to really guard your words from here on out.

She walked you over to the other side of her office before opening a door out onto a viewing platform. Below, seemed to be the training facilities that the clones had told you about from their teen years.

Down below, there was a single clone standing there and a medical droid. You watched the droid inject a crimson substance into the clone. He started to growl as the spice entered his system. You watched in abject horror as they experimented cruelly on this poor man. You bit your tongue, however. If Fives was right, you were being watched too, and you had to be so careful.

The man writhed and howled as he slipped into the hindbrain. His face contorted into something aggressive and frightening. Then the same droid that took your blood sample hovered down toward one of the barricades out of view of the clone, it dripped your blood onto the sterile surface, and suddenly the man whipped his head up like Hunter had. He made a direct beeline for your scent.

He was making soft cooing noises trying to lure out the omega he thought was there. When he turned the corner and found nothing but blood, he roared, touching the drop and bringing it to his nose. Then, like out of one of Kix’s favorite horror movies, the affected clone zeroed in on you and Nala Se on the viewing platform like Hunter when he’s tracking. He snarled and started running toward you, determined to climb up there.

Nala Se gave the order to have him sedated, and you watched the fighting clone collapse into stillness. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and looked to the Kaminoan.

"Was the Jedi an omega?" you deadpanned, still a little shocked from the demonstration.

Nala Se hesitated, “No.”

You nodded.

"We have requested you and your unit to assist us in finding more information about the origins of this research," she walked you out of the lab and back into the hallway where Fives had been, "Your group leader has already been briefed, but we wish to have you involved as you were there from the genesis of this issue."

"I will do my best," you swallowed nervously. You were hoping none of you would have to go near this ever again, but it seems it’s becoming the main focus of the GAR whether you like it or not.

~~~

When you entered the 99’s barracks, you were first hit with the smell. Ugh… unkempt alpha… you scrunched your nose and stepped inside.

"Are you okay?" Hunter asked, walking up to you, seeing the bandage.

"Yeah, they just wanted my blood," you brushed him off.

"What for?" Echo asked.

You shuffled nervously, "T-they’re running tests… on regs. It was horrible." You bit back tears, "They dosed a shiny and lured him around with my blood to see how feral he’d become. Right before he decided to come after me, they sedated him and took him away."

"They used you as bait?" Crosshair growled, plucking the pick from his mouth.

"No… I mean not really. Just my blood sample," you tried to console him.

"Why are they doing that?" Hunter asked.

"Nala Se said they’re trying to develop a cure for the drug. They wanted my blood since there's no omegas around here."

"That’s what they wanted you for?" Wrecker wondered.

"She wanted me to go over Crait again. I don’t know why. She wanted to know the specifics of Hunter cutting out my implant. She seemed interested."

"Interested?" Tech pondered, and you nodded, "Did she say anything else?"

"Just that we’re supposed to be going on another mission? She said you already were briefed," you looked to Hunter.

He reached a hand out to cup your cheek when the door whooshed open, and Fives came running inside. Hunter immediately retreated his hand to glare at the reg.

"Fives?" you quirked your head, "What are you doing here?"

"I tried finding you after I saw you, but Nala Se was alone. I knew you’d be here," he caught his breath.

"What’s wrong?" you asked, stepping toward him, intending a hand on his shoulder. You heard Crosshair make a warning growl, but you just threw him a look.

"I needed to talk to you without them watching."

"Okay," you nodded, pulling out a stool for him to sit on.

"Is this about Tup?" Echo asked, coming closer to sit.

"Yeah," Fives nodded, "Something is going on around here."

"Nala Se said he was drugged with the spice," you sat on the table, pushing Tech’s old scribbles to the side.

Fives shook his head, "No, he wasn’t drugged."

You cringed, "Wait so he killed the Jedi on his own?"

"Who killed a Jedi?" Hunter squawked.

"Tup," Echo shook his head.

"Why could a clone kill a Jedi? It’s literally impossible for us to even fathom that," Tech was confused. It goes against all of their programming.

"Were you there?" you asked.

Fives nodded, "We all were. I insisted I come back with him, he’s my brother ya know? Rex is distraught and Anakin doesn’t understand what the hell is going on. But I knew something was off when the Kaminoans started insisting it was the spice. Kix literally tested him for any substances and he cleared the test. Plus, if that was the case we’d all be rutting like crazy right now." He shook his head, "I don’t trust the Kaminoans, they’re hiding something."

"So what are you saying you think it is?" Tech asked.

"Kix thinks it’s stress-related," Fives shrugged.

"That’s not possible, that part of our brain was altered to not experience stress," Tech shook his head.

You scoffed, what a dream.

“That’s what Rex said,” Fives replied.

“Well, where is Tup now?” you asked.

“Sedated in one of the medical wards.”

“Sedated?”

"Yeah, he wouldn’t shut up about following orders or something like that," Fives shrugged. "Shaak Ti thinks he’s been brainwashed by seppies."

“Is that a possibility?” Hunter asked. "No one’s ever heard of that before."

“No, he was with us the entire time. He just snapped all of a sudden,” Fives sounded worried.

You put your hand on his, trying to comfort him. He just smiled sadly and sighed, “Kix says hi, by the way.”

“Is he here?” You asked, perking up.

“Yeah, but they have him working. A batch of shinies got pretty banged up on their first dispatch.”

“Typical,” you laughed, thinking about the nearly thousand times you’ve had to patch up the 501st boys, especially in the early days.

“I heard some pretty crazy stuff about you all,” he looked around. “Did you guys really crash land on Mimban?”

“Now, how did you hear about that?” You laughed.

“I have my sources,” he jested.

“Any chance your source is 5’3 and wears mini skirts?” You smirked.

“Now, how could you have possibly guessed that?” He mimicked you.

“Layla!” Tech said, like it was trivia.

“You know Layla?” Fives scrunched his nose.

“We were all on Ani’s Venator for a week, Fives!” You shook your head.

“Oh yeah!” Fives laughed. “When Sarge here put you into heat!”

You deflated. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“No problem,” he smiled.

“Layla baked us cookies!” Wrecker added.

“No! Tech and I made the cookies!” You pouted.

“Okay, fine, you made the cookies, but Layla was there,” Wrecker rolled his eyes.

“Ya’ll are hanging out without me, darlin’?” He playfully shoved you.

“Yup,” you smiled standing up, “And I found out Layla has a thing for ARC troopers.”

Fives scrunched his nose before turning to Echo, who looked smug.

“Like the good old days!” Five punched his batch mate Echo; just shoved him back playfully. “Cool place, by the way,” Fives waved around at the super messy barracks.

“Thanks,” the 99’s answered in unison.

Crosshair played with his toothpick. “Aren’t we supposed to be leaving?” Crosshair drawled, clearly bored with the reg.

“Oh yeah,” Hunter nodded, standing up again, “We’re leaving for Kaller.”

“Kaller?” Fives stood up, grabbing his helmet. “Kriff is on Kaller?”

“Apparently, the origin point of the spice compound,” Tech informed.

“Am I coming?” You asked Hunter.

“Yeah, we’re definitely not leaving you here,” Hunter replied.

Fives gave you a little suggestive look, which you just rolled your eyes at.

“Let’s go before Nala Se wants all my blood,” you grabbed your med pack, slinging the straps over your shoulders.

“She took what?” Fives grabbed you by the shoulders.

“She took my blood,” you looked over to Echo, then back to Fives.

“What for?” He squeezed you a bit.

“She was running tests on shinies and the spice. She wanted my blood to test the efficacy of their symptoms.”

“They used her as bait,” Crosshair corrected.

“How much did she take?” Fives asked.

You shrugged. “Two vials.”

“She asked for you specifically?” Fives was starting to sound nervous.

“Fives, you’re scaring me,” you whined.

Hunter stepped in, separating the two of you, keeping you tucked into his side. “What are you saying?”

“Have any of you noticed how different she smells?” He gestured to you.

You narrowed your eyes, looking around at the others.

“She doesn’t smell like any omega I’ve ever been around,” Fives crossed his arms.

“Is that a bad thing?” You asked quietly.

“No,” everyone said in unison.

“Why would the Kaminoans want Pip’s blood?” Tech asked.

“I don’t know,” Fives shrugged. “But Kaminoans don’t do anything without a purpose. She’s unique. For what reason, I don’t know. But I’m guessing it has something to do with this spice stuff.”

“All the more reason to get her far away from here,” Hunter said.

“I’m fine with that,” you were thrilled to get off this waterlogged planet. You looked to Fives. “Are you staying here?”

“I can’t let the others handle this on their own, Rex’s orders,” he shrugged. “As much as Kaller sounds like so much fun,” he was being sarcastic.

“We’ll catch up later, brother,” Echo clapped Fives on the shoulder before opening the door to the hallway.

“When you’re back on rotation, you owe me a night at 79’s!” Fives fitted his helmet back on and started off in the direction of the medical wing.

“Sounds like a plan!” Echo yelled after him.

“So, Kaller?” You asked, feeling a little trepidation.

“Shaak Ti informed us that the council needs us to infiltrate a secret base on Kaller to retrieve the research on this mystery drug. I know you’re probably worried about getting involved in this again, but I don’t know what else we can do,” Hunter sighed, knowing this topic was still sore for the both of you.

“It’s fine, Hunter,” you nodded, “My anxiety about this drug is nothing compared to the damage it does, which is far more important to stop.”

You got flashes back to that poor clone under its insidious influence. This had to be stopped.

“Pip obviously is going nowhere near that drug and risk getting exposed,” Tech asserted. The others agreed.

“But what about you guys?” You worried as you all made it to the docking bay. “What do we do if you get exposed?”

“We lock ourselves up in the brig,” Crosshair pointed out, “Just like we did with Hunter, until it wears out. The side effects are much worse for an omega than an alpha.”

You shivered, remembering the sharp pain of Hunter’s blade in your shoulder.

“Okay,” you acquiesced. It’s not like you could go against orders anyway. No matter how scared you might be.

“Kaller here we come!” Wrecker laughed.

~~~

“This planet is soooo… cold,” you sighed, shivering as the hatch opened. Tech had found a cave in the side of an icy mountain where he landed the Marauder, keeping it out of sight and out of the elements.

You ran back inside to grab the GAR-issued snow coat lined with nexu fur. You pulled it on and zipped it all the way up to your chin.

“How are you not cold?” You jumped up and down, trying to warm up.

“Genetics,” Tech leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead. “Behave, alright?”

You chewed your lip. “If I feel like it.”

“Omega,” he warned, turning you around and pushing you into Crosshair. “Behave.”

You huffed before snuggling into the sniper. “You heard Tech. Be a good girl until we get back.”

“Okay,” you leaned up on your tiptoes to kiss him. He smiled, melding his lips with yours.

“Bye Pip!” Wrecker came over, shoving Crosshair away from you before picking you up and hugging you. “We’ll be back!”

“I know, big guy!” You smiled. “Please, be careful.” You were obviously worried.

“We’ll be okay,” Hunter collected you from his little brother. “Radio in every thirty minutes, even if we don’t respond.”

“I know! I know!” You rubbed your scent on his chest plate. “Just like always.”

“Bye, Tiny!” Echo yelled as he descended the steps.

“Bye!” You yelped.

You watched the boys leave and the hatch close, leaving you in stark silence. You locked the access door. It’s been so long since you had been totally alone without one of them staying back with you. You almost didn’t know what to do with yourself.

Checking your datapad time, you knew they had two hours to complete this mission before you were allowed to start worrying for real.

You wandered around the ship a bit, looking for something to clean or organize. Deciding you’d take a crack at the surplus supplies, you waltzed into the back of the ship where the brig was down below. You slid down the ladder, landing with a thud in the dark underbelly of the Marauder. This is where you kicked on the lights and decided to get to work sorting and organizing everything.

To make the time go by faster, you stole Crosshair’s datapad from his bunk drawer to play some of his rock music.

You’d checked in three times already, knowing you’d only have one more to go before they’d start making their way back. You had sorted through all of the surplus food, making sure to group the meals Layala had brought you guys by preference. You made sure to include everyone’s favorites along with little snack packs and dehydrated blue milk.

You were just about to start on the ammunition supply when you got beeped on your com.

“Havoc 6, come in,” Hunter’s voice startled you. You scrambled to turn down Crosshair’s music before radioing back.

“This is Havoc 6, Havoc 1, are you alright?” You asked, feeling your heart start to race and the hair stand up on your neck… something was wrong. You just knew it.

“We’re okay, but we found… a kid?” Hunter replied, “We got the research, we’re making our way back, there’s a change of plans.”

“A kid? What? Change of plans?” You stuttered into the com channel, “What are you talking about?”

“You’ll see when we get there, get the ship warmed up,” Hunter cut the line, and you scrambled out of the brig and up into the main cabin before jogging into the cockpit. You entered Tech’s special code before being able to begin the ignition process.

Just as you got the engines primed, you heard them approach and opened the hatch door.

They came jogging inside, helmets still on. You were looking at them a bit perplexed when a smaller figure followed them inside behind Crosshair.

“A pup?” You rushed forward, unable to stop yourself, before taking the little kid into your hands, sniffing and checking him for injuries. “W-where did you find him?”

“Hey, lady!” He swatted at you, making you back up. He scowled, smoothing down his robes. That’s when you realized he was a Padawan… You suddenly stood up and looked at the boys, putting your hands on your hips.

“Sorry, kid,” Hunter chuckled, “She’s a fussy little omega.”

“You’re an omega?” He asked, looking up at you with wide eyes.

“Where is his master!?” You instantly jumped on your unit, “Did you steal a Padawan?”

“As funny as that would be, no… we didn’t steal him,” Echo shook his head, taking off his helmet, “He found us.”

You turned to look at the kid, “Are you lost?”

He scoffed, “No, I’m not lost. I was sent to find reinforcements.”

“How old are you?” You were shocked this child was being battle-tested already.

“14,” he replied.

Your eyes softened, “He’s just a baby!” You growled, looking to your unit.

They just shrugged, “Hey, it’s not our fault what the Jedi do with their littles,” Wrecker defended.

“I’m not little!” He squawked, “And we really need help, so are you going to help us or what?”

“What’s your name, kid?” Echo asked.

“Caleb. Caleb Dume.”

“Where’s your master?” Hunter asked, and the pup handed him the coordinates.

“Alright, let’s go,” Hunter decided, and you just stood there flabbergasted.

“Relax, ‘Mega,” Crosshair tried to help you come to terms with this, “He’s a Jedi, probably could kick all of our asses if he wanted to.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” you sighed.

“He’s not your pup,” Crosshair reminded you, “It’s not your problem.”

You growled. Crosshair just smirked. You were fiercely protective, that was for certain.

You peeked your head around the sniper to look at Caleb, “Have you eaten anything, hun?”

“Stop mothering him!” Echo yelled from his seat.

“I can’t help it!” You shook your head before heading for your jump seat. Hunter eyed you.

“I’m alright, miss,” Caleb grabbed onto the side of the ship as Tech brought the Marauder up into the air.

You were not liking this situation. First the spice, and now the kid. Why can’t missions just go how they’re supposed to?

Tech expertly flew the ship not too far from where you were hidden in the mountains. He found a clearing just before all of the blaster fire in the distance.

As the ship touched down, you stood up to follow them, but they all turned around, pointing fingers at you, “Pip, stay on the ship.”

“Ugh! Fine!” You groused, going over to Tech’s seat, ignoring the itch to take care of the kid.

“Are all omegas like that?” Caleb asked, picking up his lightsaber from his belt.

“Pip’s extra mothering when it comes to pups,” Tech replied, adjusting his holovisor.

“Should have seen her on Ryloth…” Echo started telling Caleb the story when the hatch door closed, leaving you once again alone in the ship.

You let out a loud groan, spinning the pilot’s seat around. The primal need to make sure the kid was okay was eating you from the inside out. He was literally walking into a war zone. That goes against everything your instincts wanted.

“Don’t do it, Y/N,” you shook your head, spinning the chair again.

But when you slowed down the spin, you noticed Caleb had left behind his robe and something in you snapped.

The pup was going to be cold…

"Fuck this." You got up, snatching the robe and smashed the hatch opening. You knew your alphas were going to kill you, but you didn’t care. You could care after you knew the pup was okay. At least you grabbed the thigh holster and a spare pistol, strapping it to yourself before stomping down the steps and out into the snow-covered forest. As you neared the battlefield, you heard bullets flying and explosions in the distance. You went running, suddenly overwhelmed with instincts… you didn’t know why this was happening. This hadn’t ever happened to you before, not even with the little girl on Ryloth. Something was very, very wrong.

Your jog turned into a sprint as you dodged trees and jumped over fallen trunks.

Letting your omega instinct guide you, you appeared in the clearing, seeing the last of the droids being destroyed by the cunning skills of your unit.

"We got a problem," Crosshair’s voice rang out through their comms, "Pip left the ship."

"What?" Hunter whipped around, finding you wandering through the smoke, clearly looking for something in the literal middle of the battlefield.

"Kark," Echo cursed, "She’s looking for the kid."

"Omega…" Hunter growled into the com channel. You ignored him.

They started walking back over to you, looking angry as a pissed-off rancor as the smoke started to clear. Crosshair came sliding down the side of the icy hill, joining their little clique when you spun around, finding Caleb walking over towards you.

"Hey, Miss?" He gave you a kind smile.

"Hi," you said, looking around a bit dazed.

"Are you okay, miss?" He asked, walking up to you.

"Y-yeah, I just had to make sure you were okay," you shook your head, starting to come back to your senses.

"I’m okay," he nodded, "Thanks to your friends."

"You left this behind," you handed him the brown robe, which he happily took and put on, shaking off the chill in the air.

"Y/N!" Hunter’s roar cut through the war zone.

"Kark," you sighed, closing your eyes.

Caleb giggled, pulling up his hood.

"I gave you direct orders to stay on the ship!" Hunter was so mad, "Then you run out into a literal battlefield. You could have been killed!"

"I-I’m…" you struggled to get the words out as the hair on the back of your neck stood up.

Turning around, you saw the master Jedi step up out of her trench, only to ignite her saber as her captain turned on her.

"Master!" Caleb screeched, igniting his saber and running towards his master. You couldn’t help but run after the pup despite your alpha’s roars of disapproval. Caleb suddenly stopped, realizing that his master was outnumbered.

"Run, Caleb!" She screamed, taking the brunt of the fire.

You flung yourself over the pup just in time to dodge a plasma bullet. Caleb was reacting much faster than you. When he looked up to see the 99’s jogging towards you two guns in hand, he quickly grabbed onto your wrist and started dragging you into the woods with him, running for your lives.

"Caleb!" You yelped, running with him.

"They’ve turned!" He said, jumping over branches. He was much faster than you, but you tried your best to keep up, "The clones can’t be trusted."

"What?" You were gasping for air, starting to feel the fatigue.

"I can feel it," he said, weaving left, trying to throw anyone off your trail.

A plasma bullet went whizzing by your head before exploding into a nearby tree. You both were forced to halt your sprint in the crunchy snow.

"Maker Crosshair, you could have hit her!" Echo growled, knocking the sniper’s gun out of his hand.

"Stop running, kid!" Hunter called out to the two of you.

Caleb just stepped in front of you, igniting his saber, "Stay back!"

They stopped their approach. You were beyond confused.

Crosshair kept his weapon trained on the kid while the others tried their hardest not to come off as intimidating.

"It’s okay, Caleb," Hunter said, putting his gun away and keeping his hands up in the air, "We just want to help you."

Crosshair decided then he would take the shot. You watched in horror as the blue plasma blast soared through the air, and Caleb skillfully deflected it, sending it back into the trees. You screamed and grabbed the kid, curling your body around him on instinct. You knelt in the snow, shielding Caleb from your alphas.

You heard shouting, then you heard firepuncher go off again, but this time the blast missed wildly. You flinched at the sound of it exploding into nearby rocks. You cradled Caleb's head like a mother would, keeping him pressed to you safely.

When you dared to look behind you, you saw Hunter and Crosshair wrestling in the snow while Tech held firepuncher, keeping it away from his little brother.

"Good soldiers follow orders," Crosshair repeated over and over again as Hunter demanded to know why the hell he would shoot at their omega and the kid.

Wrecker tried to approach you, but you let out the nastiest snarl you could muster, flashing your fangs at him.

He just put his hands up, staying at a comfortable distance.

"They’re coming," Caleb said, holding onto your shirt.

"Who?" You asked.

"The other clones," he said, "We have to go, now!"

"I can’t," you felt tears start to shed as your instincts were ripping you in half. You wanted to protect the pup, but the other part of you needed to be with your alphas.

"They’re not who you think they are… not anymore," he warned.

"I can’t leave them," you bent down, picking up his lightsaber and handing it to him. You smoothed down his hair and looked the child in the eyes, "You need to run. You need to stay alive."

"What about you?" He asked, looking at your fighting unit.

"They won’t hurt me," you nodded.

He just stood up, looking skeptical before looking into the tree line where approaching noises were coming from.

You gave the child a nod before he turned and sprinted off into the woods, disappearing into the snowy wilderness. You heaved in the snow, feeling like you failed somehow.

"Omega?" Tech asked, slowly approaching you, hoping you wouldn’t snap.

You refused to face them, feeling your tears slide down your hot cheeks, "What the fuck just happened?"

Ruh Roh... it's imperial Crosshair time...

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Taglist: @substantial-exposure

@rains-on-kamino

@minimissmoo

@z-and-the-batboys

@aynavaano

@9902sgirl

@sideofhorny

#crosshair #hunter #tech #wrecker #abo #echo #star wars #bad batch #omega #smut #tbb #rut #heat #fanfic #au #tbbhunter #tbbcrosshair #tbbwrecker #tbbecho #tbbtech

63 notes · View notes

superlarva · 1 year

Text

Fives, Tup, and Dogma in a fort!

Soooo sorry about last week, I've been ridiculously busy, but we're back to my usual weekly Sunday updates of Raising Dominoes for the foreseeable future!

Anyways, here is Chapter 8 - Furniture and Forts. It was mostly just an excuse to draw the boys in a blanket fort :)

Prologue: 00 Previous chapter: 07 Next chapter: 09

Summary: Tup and Dogma help Fives set up his new room before a power outage frightens them.

CW: Implied/referenced child abuse, panic attacks, power outages

Chapter 8 - Furniture and Forts

Fives had not been able to fall back asleep after his nightmare, so after Cody left they spent the rest of the morning playing with the toys that Rex had bought the day before. At first Fives seemed to have trouble with the concept of playing. He would just sit in front of the toys staring at them blankly until Rex told him to do something specific with them, at which point he would comply, but after a while he seemed to get the gist of it. He began to make up little scenarios with the action figures and would have them battle each other.

It did not sit well with Rex that fighting seemed to be the only thing his son knew well enough to recreate in play, but Fives did seem to be having fun, so he tried not to intervene. Well, he might have been trying to coax Fives into helping him build a racetrack out of Legos for the matchbox cars, but the boy was too busy bashing the small plastic soldiers together and making blaster noises to notice.

By early afternoon Fives seemed to be running out of energy. The workers also arrived to deliver the boys’ furniture, so Rex turned the TV on to a random cartoon channel and let Fives curl up on the couch and watch it while he helped the guys set up the room.

When they were done the workers left and Rex found Fives still watching the show. He had hoped the boy would have fallen asleep, but he supposed it had probably been a little loud for that.

“Hey, buddy,” Rex sank down on the couch next to Fives.

Fives quickly turned his attention to Rex, television forgotten, “Are they done? Can I see?”

Rex chuckled, “Yep.”

Fives grinned and jumped up. He ran to his new room and stopped in the doorway. Rex joined him.

The furniture was all from the same set, so every piece had the same dark stained wood. It was a little weird to see the room with just furniture and no decorations, but Fives did not seem to mind. The kid was practically trembling with excitement.

Each side of the room had a bed with a bare mattress sitting in the far corner, and a nightstand, desk, dresser, and bookshelf up against the wall. Fives looked up at Rex, “This is really all just for me and Echo?”

“This is your room, yeah.”

“Wow.”

Rex grinned and pushed Fives lightly into the room, “Go on. Pick which side you want.”

Fives looked around the room and took a tentative step forward before looking back to Rex uncertainly.

“It’s okay,” Rex tried to reassure, “Just pick which bed you want to sleep in.”

Fives looked like he was making the hardest decision of his life before stepping over to the bed on the left and turning back to Rex, “This one?”

“Perfect.”

Fives beamed, “Can we-”

He was cut off by the sound of muffled voices:

“No, you have to knock louder, Tup. He’s not gonna hear that.”

The second voice was too soft to hear through the walls, but a loud knock rang through the apartment.

Fives looked up at Rex, his brows drawn together, and a tight frown tugged down the corners of his lips.

“It’s alright, those are my friends,” Rex said, flicking on the light in Fives’s room and motioning for the boy to follow him as he made his way down the hallway towards the door, turning on all the lights as he went. “You remember Hardcase?”

“Y-yeah,” Fives answered.

“These are his little cousins Dogma and Tup. They’re just a bit older than you.”

Fives nodded, but hesitated as they reached the entryway, “Why’d you turn on all the lights?”

“Oh, uh, they don’t like the dark,” Rex said softly, opening the door before Fives could ask why not.

They were met with a scowling preteen with close cropped hair and a boy with longer wavy hair that could have been the other’s twin if he was not a few years younger standing in front of a large box.

It took Rex a second to register, but when he did he grinned, “Thanks. This is your guys’ old stuff?”

The boys nodded.

Rex pulled the container into his apartment, “Awesome. This is great.”

Fives peered out from behind Rex and gave the older boys a small wave. Tup offered a shy smile and inched a bit closer to Dogma, who wrapped his arm around his brother and attempted a smile of his own, but it did not quite reach his eyes.

Dogma craned his neck to see into the apartment, “What were all those people doing?”

“Setting up Fives and Echo’s new room,” Rex said, ruffling Fives’s hair.

Tup’s eyebrows raised in interest. Rex new the look well and smiled at the boy, “If it’s okay with Fives, you guys can check it out. It’s not finished or anything though.”

Tup and Dogma exchanged a glance before looking to Fives.

“It’s okay,” Fives said, shifting a little behind Rex even as the words left his mouth.

Tup smiled and followed Dogma as he made his way into the apartment.

Dogma puffed out his chest and turned to address Fives, “My name is Dogma, I’m twelve years old and 3 months. This is my brother Tup. He’s ten.”

Fives’s large brown eyes darted between the boys, “I’m Fives.”

Dogma and Tup stayed to help unpack and decorate the bedroom. Dogma was helping Rex make the beds and the younger boys were putting Tup’s hand-me-downs in the dresser. Fives pulled out a shirt and passed it to Tup, “Echo.”

Tup hesitated, “Are you sure? You’re giving way more clothes to Echo than to yourself.” Fives shrugged, “That shirt is red. Echo likes red.”

Rex looked over to the dresser and saw that Echo’s was full and Fives’s practically empty, “Tup’s right, Fives. You need clothes to wear too. Why don’t you start putting more things in your dresser.”

Fives’s eyebrows pushed together, and he looked down into the box of clothes, “But- but what if Echo wants them?”

Rex shrugged, “When Echo gets home you guys can trade if you want, but for now you need to give yourself more clothes.”

Fives still looked a little confused and when Tup moved to place the red shirt in his dresser rather than Echo’s, he shook his head.

Tup froze, looking from Fives to the dresser to Rex, who was busy tucking in sheets. Dogma had been listening to the exchange while making Fives’s bed and looked up at the silence. He caught on quick and scowled at Fives, “Rex said-”

“But Echo would really like that shirt!” Fives interrupted, voice hitting a whiney pitch.

Dogma’s scowl deepened and Tup looked like he would rather be anywhere than caught in this crossfire.

Rex looked over and was about to say something, but Fives beat him to it, “I-I’ll take the rest of them, just- just Echo would really like that one.”

“But-” Dogma started, confusion replacing his scowl.

“It’s fine,” Rex interjected, he had heard the panic in Fives’s voice, and he did not want to make it any worse.

Dogma opened his mouth to say something.

“It’s fine, Dogma,” Rex repeated with a bit more force.

Dogma mumbled out a quiet apology and turned back to Fives’s bed, his ears turning red.

“Tup, why don’t you put that one in Echo’s drawer,” Rex nodded to the red tee still clutched in Tup’s hand. The boy obliged and Rex continued, “But the rest go to Fives, okay?”

Fives nodded seriously.

With four sets of helping hands, they were able to finish setting up the room fairly quickly. After learning that Jesse was out taking Hardcase to his drum lesson and Kix had picked up an extra shift at the hospital (which Rex could not help but feel responsible for), Rex insisted on Dogma and Tup staying for dinner. The boys did not complain.

While they were eating Dogma suddenly pointed out the window, “Hey, it’s snowing!”

“Really?” Tup jumped up and ran to the window.

Fives joined Tup, “Whoa, it’s so fluffy.”

Dogma’s eyes darted between his plate and the window, clearly debating something. Rex felt an odd pang in his chest at how hard this decision seemed to be for the kid. He smiled gently, “You can go take a closer look.”

Dogma’s eyes snapped to his, “But we’re eating?”

“The food will still be here after you take a look.”

“Come on, Dogma!” Tup exclaimed, unable to hide his excitement.

Dogma slowly and a little rigidly got up from the table and made his way over to his brother, glancing back uncertainly at Rex every few feet.

Rex nodded encouragingly. He had known Dogma and Tup ever since Kix had taken them in six years ago. The boys had been scared and nervous and so afraid of the dark that they refused to sleep until they all but collapsed. As the years went on, they acclimated to their new environment as well as one could expect, but Tup was still a shy bundle of worry and Dogma was still overly compliant to what he believed the “rules” were. And they were both still scared of the dark.

“It’s windy,” Fives noted.

“Really windy,” Dogma breathed, sounding lost in thought.

Tup turned from the window to look at Rex, his face scrunched up with worry, “Do you think the power’s gonna go out?”

Rex shook his head, “Probably not.”

Tup turned back to the window and Rex grimaced; he could hear the wind howling outside.

The boys had taken to playing in the twins’ room after dinner while Rex cleaned up. From what he could hear in the kitchen, it sounded like Dogma was teaching Fives some sort of card game. Rex smiled; he was glad they were getting along.

As soon as he finished scrubbing the last dish, the lights flickered in the apartment. Rex dropped the plate back into the sink and ran to the bedroom.

Dogma sat cross legged on the floor in front of a game of palace, back stiff as a board, eyes wide and focused on a space just in front of Rex. Tup had thrown himself over his older brother and was clinging to him, eyes just as wide and filled with terror.

Fives’s back was to Rex, and he turned, a frown tugging down the corners of his lips, “What-”

Just then the lights went out and they were plunged into darkness.

Rex moved quickly, scooping up Tup and pulling him into his lap, just as he had seen Kix do a million times before. The boy was already hyperventilating, his small chest rising and falling quickly with each shallow, ragged breath. Rex pulled his hand through Tup’s wavy hair, and exaggerated his breathing in the hopes that Tup would feel it and it would help him regulate his own.

“You’re safe, Tup. It’s me, Rex. You’re in my apartment.”

Tup clung to Rex a little tighter, but his breathing remained quick and shallow.

Rex turned to Fives, whose outline he could see in the dim light from the window, “Fives, there’s a flashlight on my nightstand in my room. Do you think you could get it for me?”

Fives made an affirmative noise and scurried into the darkness.

“How are you doing, Dogma?” Rex asked, turning his attention to the older boy for a moment.

Dogma did not respond, so Rex pulled him in close to his side, “I got you, you’re safe.” Dogma rested his head against Rex’s shoulder and trembled, speaking softly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to.”

Rex felt hot tears seeping into his shirt and could not help but feel like he was in way over his head. He had no idea what Dogma was apologizing for, but he supposed that did not matter.

“I know,” Rex said gently, even though did not, “It’s alright.”

Fives reappeared with the flashlight in hand and passed it to Rex. Rex switched it on immediately and it flickered to life, bathing the room in a golden light. He felt Dogma relax a bit beside him and gave the sniffling boy a quick squeeze before turning his attention back to Tup.

Tup was still in the throws of a panic attack and clung to Rex with a force and determination he did not know the ten-year-old had. Rex gently pried one of Tup’s hand off him and pressed the flashlight into it, “Here, have the light.”

Tup clutched the flashlight and slumped against Rex, his breaths erratic as he struggled to calm down.

“Breath with me, Tup. In,” Rex took a deep breath in before letting it out slowly, “Out.”

Rex kept inhaling and exhaling with Tup and eventually got the boy to slow his breathing. All the fight left Tup’s body and he slumped weakly against Rex.

“You want me to call Kix?” Rex asked gently.

Tup shook his head.

“Jesse?”

“No.”

“It wouldn’t be a bother.”

“No. I’m- I’m okay now,” Tup said shakily.

Rex frowned, Tup was far from okay, “You’ll stay here until Kix or Jesse get home.”

Tup nodded against him.

“Um, excuse me, sir?” Fives pipped up from the doorway of his bedroom where he had watched the scene unfold.

“Yes, little soldier?” Rex said the joking nickname coming automatically.

“Can we build a fort?”

“Like a blanket fort?” Rex asked, a little surprised Fives even knew what that was.

Fives nodded, “When we were scared like this, we would hide in a fort.”

“Yeah,” Rex said slowly, wondering how many times the twins had been “scared like this.”

Fives grinned and turned to Dogma, “Dogma, there are extra blankets in the closet in the hallway. We need three.”

The preteen sniffled and wiped his face, but got up and swiftly made his way out of the room, following the orders like his life depended on it.

Once Dogma had his mission, Fives sat down next to Tup—who was curled up in Rex’s lap and did not seem like he planned on leaving anytime soon—and explained his architectural vision for the fort. The plan distracted Tup from the power outage and Rex had to admit that there was no way he could have handled the situation better than his seven-year-old son currently was.

Dogma returned from the dimly lit hallway quickly and handed the blankets over to Fives.

The construction of the fort was left mostly to Fives and Dogma, but Tup did seem to be taking an interest in it. Rex nudged the boy in his lap as the other two finished up the fort and began crawling around in it, “Want to play with Dogma and Fives?”

Tup hesitated, “Can I keep the flashlight?”

“Of course,” Rex nodded, giving the kid a gentle push towards the others.

Tup crawled over to join his brother and Fives, who were now talking enthusiastically about “defense systems” they could put in place to fortify their creation.

Rex could have sworn he even saw Dogma smiling.

@marierg @stressed-cherry @ffdemon @renton6echo @bambambunny @tearfulsolace @rndmpeep @brokenphoenix99 @nerdy-valkyrie @xylionet @tazmbc1 @eyayah123 @the-bad-batch-baroness @sarcastic-nebula @ihaventpickedausername @sexysmeagolshitposting @emma-1409

#There are some chapters that actually have Echo in them coming up #Sorry about the wait #the clone wars #clone trooper fives #clone trooper echo #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives #captain rex #clone wars #tcw #clone trooper tup #clone trooper dogma #domino twins #baby dominos #superlarva

248 notes · View notes

dem-obscure-imagines · 2 months

Text

I Know the End | Vol. 4

Poe Dameron x Reader

Fandom: Star Wars

Summary: You were one of the Rebellion’s greatest weapons in the Galactic Civil War, a Princess from a distant planet, a Jedi with wings. Now, you’ve found yourself in a new world, a new war, your old friends long gone.

When Poe Dameron was sent on a wild goose chase of a reconnaissance mission four systems out, he never expected to find the key to his heart…

Note: At long last, here it is. Thank you for your patience. I love you all. I honestly wrote this as a long-winded attempt to make Poe Dameron’s dumbest line “Somehow, Palpatine returned” into a gut-wrenching and emotional moment and it got way out of hand. I am no Star Wars expert, but I did a lot of research for this and consider myself waaaaaaay more of a SW nerd now than I was a mere two months ago. Could probably write a dissertation on it at this point (I say as I literally churned out a novel). It is my first time writing for the fandom, though, so, here goes nothing. I did make up a fair bit of stuff and a good handful of OCs for this. Let me know what you think!

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, lightsaber and blaster wounds, alcohol consumption, war and the implications of it, gets a little steamy but no smut, reader has nightmares, misuse of the Force, Rewriting the Rise of Skywalker a lil bit…

Word Count: 82.7k total (Split into four approximately 20k chunks)

Reader Is: 24, a Jedi, a Princess, has butterfly wings

Vol 1. | Vol 2. | Vol 3. | Vol 4.

Somehow…

You walked up the hill to your favorite spot, chest heavy with emotion. You set your bag against a rock, Rey and Soren running the course out in the trees. You should have been there with them. Or, at the very least, out there with Poe. But there was nothing you could do about that now.

BB-8 rolled over, beeping up at you inquisitively.

“He leave you here to check on me?” You asked.

He nodded his little head adorably.

“Well that was sweet of him.” You said, kneeling down to pat the top of his head. “Thank you for checking in. I’m gonna meditate up here for a while, if you want to go shadow Soren or Rey.”

He beeped, nodding, telling you he’d go follow Rey for a bit. You watched as he rolled along, his orange and white little head ducking through a patch of brush.

You sat on the rock, legs crossed. You closed your eyes, the Force’s call loud this time. All-consuming. The sounds of Ajan Kloss swept quickly away, and silence swallowing you instead. Darkness.

You breathed, forcing your lungs to take in the air, to let it out. You listened. You waited.

First, you saw Kylo, searching for something. His energy was frazzled. Desperate. He was conflicted, that much was clear. Maybe Rey was right. Maybe he wasn’t completely gone. For Leia’s sake, you hoped that was true.

You let the breath out, taking another, pushing your mind elsewhere. Deeper. You carefully skirted around Maddox, but landed in the First Order, in the mind of one of the Generals, thinking about their new fleet. He was talking to some of the other officers, arranging things, moving this fleet, starting their operation. You got chills and pulled away, slipping out unnoticed before he could catch a whiff of you poking around.

Moving to something lighter, you watched Rey and Soren, running the training course, BB-8 rolling along behind her. Soren deflected hits with ease, jumping from tree to tree. Rey was…having some difficulty, though. She’d been in her head a lot lately, like you, but it was different for her. She and Kylo were still connected. You couldn’t imagine what it would be like, to be linked to someone like him, through the Force no less. No matter where she went, she took him with her, whether she liked it or not.

You exhaled, breath leaving your mouth in what felt like puffs of steam, fogging up like it had on Hoth. You heard a wicked laugh. A familiar one. Utter darkness. Dark enough to swallow you whole. The hairs on your arms stood straight, goosebumps pricking up. It pulled you. It called. Like a lullaby, but…wrong.

No. No, not that.

You shook your head, trying to rid yourself of the feeling, the ice water trickling down your spine. It was empty for a long time, flashes of things fleeting across your mind, but not staying long.

A battle. Lightsabers clashing. Blasters firing. Stormtroopers. A fleet of Star Destroyers against a storming sky. The Millenium Falcon. A desert. A knife. A kiss.

Your heart raced, mind guided forcibly by the hand until you emerged from the trees in your mind. Poe and Finn had landed, Poe walking quickly out of the Falcon, which was engulfed in flames.

“It’s on fire. Whole thing’s on fire! All of it–! Fire!” He waved a hand behind him, focusing on Rey. “Really could have…used your help out there!”

“How’d it go?”

“Really bad, actually! Really bad!”

“Han’s ship!”

“What did you do to the droid?”

“What’d you do to the Falcon?”

“Falcon’s in a lot better shape than he is!”

“BB-8’s not on fire!”

“What’s left of him isn’t on fire!”

“You know what you are?”

Poe grinned, annoyed. “What?”

“You’re difficult. You’re a difficult man.”

“You…you are…” He grunted.

“They’re back, Aunt (Y/N).” Soren said, stirring you from your vision. It occurred to you then that it wasn’t a vision. You’d caught up to the present. How…how long had you been meditating.

The sun was definitely lower in the sky when you opened your eyes. It had been hours. It had only felt like minutes. Something about that place you’d been, that dark, cold void, had just sucked the time away.

“Oh. Shit. Alright.” You touched down, feet making contact with the ground once more. You walked with Soren through the trees, to where Poe and Rey were arguing, through the dialogue you’d just heard. You glanced down at BB-8. Sure enough, something had happened while you were near-unconscious, floating in the air. One of Bee’s panels had been knocked clean off.

Poe knelt down beside him, face in his hands. He looked unharmed. A wave of relief washed over you, the sight of him melting away your stress. He hadn’t noticed you standing there yet.

Chewie roared, arms in the air. Poe had lightspeed skipped the Falcon.

“You lightspeed skipped?!” Rey asked.

“Yeah, well, it got us back here, didn’t it?”

“Poe, the compressor’s down!”

“Oh, I know! I was there!”

“You can’t lightspeed skip the Falcon!”

“Actually, turns out, you can!” Poe shouted.

“Alright, guys, we just landed, okay?” Finn said, trying to to keep the peace.

They went back and forth for a little longer. Poe and Finn confirmed there had been a spy that they got information from, a First Order operative who was now feeding the Resistance information.

BB-8 told Poe what had happened. “You dropped a tree on him?”

“You blew both sub-alternators?!”

They bickered back and forth some more and Poe finally caught your eyes. “Yeah, but you’re not. You’re here training. For what?! You’re the best fighters we have. We need you. Out there, not here.”

“Poe…” Your heart raced, a lump in your throat. It was your fault. You should have gone with him when he asked.

“Baby…” He shook his head, waving his hands as though he could dispel his anger with a single flourish. He exhaled, looking tired. “Maybe you were right. We could have used a Jedi out there…” Poe bit his lip, thinking before he spoke, before he made that sad look in your eyes worse. “I’m gonna hit the fresher. We’ll talk after.”

“Alright.” You nodded, watching as he went, firing some orders on the way there, making sure the files got properly decoded in the meantime.

BB-8 looked up at you, beeping sadly.

“No, it’s okay. Poe and I are fine.” You reassured him. “Let’s get you fixed up, alright?”

He nodded his head, following you along to the workshop. You hauled him up onto one of the empty stations near the entrance, pulling out the necessary tools, a spare panel to replace the one that had fallen off, and you set to work, fixing him up with a screwdriver, using the Force to make sure everything was tight, fit in place. You had a pair of goggles on your face, to help with the smaller details, giving you the zoom you needed to see them.

You pulled out the paint next, the shade of orange that matched the rest of him, and gingerly began painting the panel until it matched.

“How do you know how to do that?” Poe’s voice was low, rolling at the back of his throat. You turned to find him standing in the workshop’s doorway, leaning against the doorframe.

“I had a droid. Did repairs on her when the mechs were too busy.” You replied, brush strokes gently filling in the color, careful not to deviate from the crisp lines.

His eyebrows furrowed. “Didn’t know that.”

“Mmhmm.” You shrugged, finishing up and tucking the tools back into their places. You used a small fan to dry the top coat faster. You knew BB-8, knew he’d be racing as soon as you set him down, smearing the fresh paint throughout base.

“What happened to her?”

“I’m…I don’t know. It’s been thirty years and I haven’t seen her roaming around. Artoo never mentioned her, and I haven’t brought it up. She…might have gotten scrapped or destroyed…”

BB-8 asked if it was dry yet, sounding impatient.

You laughed, reaching out a tentative finger to check, and sure enough, it was. “Looks like you’re good to go. Here, let’s get you back on the ground.” You picked up the heavy droid, Poe helping to lower him to the ground. “How do you feel? Everything fit right? Everything’s in the right spot?”

He gave a cursory roll around the workshop, whirring excitedly, complimenting your work.

You sat back on the workbench, looking up at Poe, his hair still damp from the fresher. He looked clean, but still tired. You could feel how he was frayed at the edges. You reached up to touch his cheek, dark and dusted with more stubble than usual. It made him look older.

“You’re giving me that look.”

“What look?” You asked, eyes sparkling innocently.

“That look you get when you’re thinking too much.”

“Yeah, well, excuse me for being worried about my boyfriend.” You chuckled as he took a step closer, slotting himself between your legs and pressing his face into the crook of your neck. “He is a pilot, after all, it’s a pretty dangerous gig.”

He wrapped his arms around your figure, exhaling deeply. You inhaled the scent of him. That soap that smelled like fresh rain. You could have drowned in it, you were sure. In him.

“You smell good.” You murmured, smiling when he chuckled against you.

“You like that, huh?”

“Mmhmm.” You pulled him closer, tears welling in your eyes, that lump returning to your throat “I should have been there, Poe. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. We all are. I just…It’s hard for me to wrap my head around sometimes, this Jedi stuff. But it’s important, too.”

You pressed a long kiss to his cheek. He turned his head, catching your lips instead, arms holding you close. You stayed like that for a long moment until you heard someone clear their throat in the doorway.

“Hey, uh, they just about got those files decrypted. Leia’s calling a meeting in an hour. Wants to talk to both of you first.” Snap said.

“Thanks, buddy. We’ll head that way.” Poe said with a smile. He offered his hand and you took it gladly, fingers threaded together. He gave your hand a squeeze. You walked through base together, drawing a few pairs of eyes, but you didn’t care anymore. BB-8 rolled on ahead, greeting the other droids as everyone gathered.

Your heart raced, stomach sinking when you saw the look on Leia’s face. You couldn’t place it yet, what was wrong. But the feeling alone was enough to tell you it was bad. Nearly unspeakable. Like that deep, dark void you had seen, icewater chilling in your veins.

You tensed, wings flaring, eyes widening as you realized.

“Hey.” Poe squeezed your hand, sensing the way you froze. “What’s…?”

She didn’t even have to say it. You already knew.

“Palpatine.”

***

“Artoo decrypted the files from the First Order spy and…it confirms the worst.” Poe began, the entire Resistance packed into the hangar, circled up to listen.

You sat on a crate at the edge of the circle, shoulders hunched, wings drooping, pain etched deep into your eyes. It was like your soul had been crushed to a fine powder, sprinkled across the galaxy. Thirty years earlier, you’d given your life to stop Insidia from reviving Palpatine. And it was all for nothing. The attack on Mariposas, your decades in cryosleep. It was meaningless now. You’d given up your life, your friends, all of it to protect a future that hadn’t come to pass. He’d been there, pulling the strings the whole time, manipulating Kylo, creating the First Order…

Poe let out a broken sigh, eyes lingering on your hunched figure before delivering the news. “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”

The Resistance murmured, trying to figure out exactly how it had happened. Was it dark cloning? Sith magic? You wanted to pipe up, tell them exactly how. Cultists, led by Insidia, then your own brother, feeding him Force users until he’d reached his full strength again. Or, full enough. You doubted he was already at his full strength. If he was…it would be worse.

No wonder the Jedi were no more. They’d all been drained to nothing to revive the man who’d ruined your life and nearly destroyed the galaxy.

Poe continued to explain the situation, the fleet forming on Exegol, the Sith planet. The Final Order.

You wanted to collapse. Wanted to lay down, wanted to scream, wanted to let it all out in a blinding wave of Force energy, but you couldn’t. Couldn’t move. Paralyzed by the encroaching sense of doom. Dark and all-consuming.

“Princess, are you alright?” One of the guys in intel asked once the meeting was disbanded. Beaumont. He was nice, had kind eyes, a gentle smile. He’d been a teacher before he left for the Resistance.

You nodded, forcing yourself to perk up, straightening out your posture. Right. There were people watching. Always were. And if you didn’t have hope, how were they expected to? “Fine. I’m fine. Just…thinking. Trying to…wrap my head around all of this.”

Rey came walking back towards the group with one of Luke’s journals, one you hadn’t touched yet. She flipped through the pages, holding it up to show you. “Luke was trying to find Exegol. After the attack on Mariposas. Nearly found it, too, but his trail went cold on Pasaana tracking down a Sith Wayfinder. We could go. The two of us. Finish this.”

She meant it. You could see it in her eyes. That spark. Just you and her, leaving to finish what you and Luke had started. To put an end to the madness once and for all. Poe and Finn could stay behind, make a plan for the final fight, figure out how to destroy the fleet before they set out on their attack of the galaxy.

And no matter what happened, the fate of the Jedi would be safe in Soren’s hands. In Finn’s.

It seemed dangerous, but…it had to be done. The clock was already ticking, and you were running out of time.

You grabbed a bag, heading towards the Falcon with Rey.

“What, were you even going to say goodbye?” Poe asked, causing you to freeze in place, turning to face him. “Or were you just gonna pull outta here with the compressor still smoking?”

“I had a feeling you might not take it so well.”

“Yeah, well you were right. We’re coming with you.” Poe said, touching your arm on the way into the Falcon with Chewie. Finn was right behind him.

“It’s too dangerous. We’re meant to do this.” Rey said, trying to reason with them, but you could tell they were set on it.

“And we’re meant to go with you.” Finn said. “You’re not going without us. But I’ll let you argue with him about it if you want.” He motioned to Poe.

You couldn’t help but chuckle. That wasn’t an argument you would win.

“Repairs will be done tomorrow morning. We’re going with you.” Poe said, coming back out of the ship. He brushed the hair out of your face, eyes full of love and determination. “End of story.”

“What if they need you here?”

“What if you need me there?” He countered, quirking an eyebrow. “It’s been a while since we’ve been on a mission together. I can’t wait to see what you can do now, with all that training, your Highness.”

“Poe.”

“(Y/N).”

You let out a sigh, closing your eyes. “What if something happens to you?”

“What if something happens to you and I’m not there?” He asked. It had been weighing on him. He tilted his head, sincerity in his voice. “I’d rather die, with you, helping you, knowing I made a difference, then letting you face this alone. We’re finishing this. Together. Whether I make it to the end or not.”

“Poe–”

“You told me you didn’t expect to survive the Rebellion. You were willing to die for the cause. Isn’t this the same?”

You stared at him for a long moment, searching his eyes, his feelings, that warmth in his chest steadfast and strong. It wasn’t the same. Not anymore. Not for you. You were willing to die, sure, but…that little life you’d seen, his graying hair, his wizened face, his reading glasses…

The wedding ring…

In all your visions of it, you’d never seen yourself there. Just him. You didn’t want to risk that. His future, whether or not you were in it.

“Baby, you can fight with me all night about it, alright? I’m going. So’s Finn.” He said, tone still tense. Still…fighting. He was always a fighter, you’d known that from the start. You just never expected him to be fighting you.

***

The crew had a bonfire that night. Word had spread. Your top secret mission wasn’t so secret anymore. People were scrambling to figure out what they’d do with all of you gone. And with three of the four Jedi leaving, Soren made it his mission to stay. To help around the base. To be the resident Jedi in your stead.

Your legacy.

You and Laesynda had one last, final talk. She wished you all the luck in the galaxy, prayed you’d come back this time. That it wouldn’t be another thirty years before she got to see her sister again.

You stared into the flames, arms crossed, thinking about all of it. The gathering was devoid of its usual chatter, joking banter between the Resistance fighters. Things were bleak. If it didn’t go well, if Palpatine couldn’t be stopped…this night could very well be one of your last. All of you. The First Order would snuff out the Resistance like a birthday candle.

Poe sat beside you, quiet. He didn’t want to argue any more, but couldn’t stomach the look in your eye. The worry. He wondered what all you’d seen, the things you weren’t sharing with him. He ran a hand down his face, letting out a long sigh.

Why did dating a Jedi have to be so kriffin’ complicated…

Budding in his chest, he felt something, a somewhat familiar sensation. He’d felt it only once before. And when he looked up, sure enough, Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost was standing at the edge of the woods, meeting his eyes this time.

Poe blinked, staring at him. He pointed at his chest, as if to ask “who, me?” The Jedi of legend shook his head, motioning to you. Ah, right. That made sense. Obviously he was there to see you.

Poe nudged you, pulling you from your thoughts, hand tight around yours as the light of the fire danced around your face. “Hey, uhhh…”

You looked over at him, anxious to hear what he had to say now that he was finally ready to talk. Instead, he tilted his head towards Luke, who stood there, a sullen look in his eyes.

You chuckled softly. “Oh. Okay. I’ll be back soon.” You squeezed his hand, pressing a long kiss to his cheek, as if to reassure him of something. You knew it had to be weird for him, the ghost of your dead ex-boyfriend coming around for a chat.

Poe nodded, watching as you walked off with him. He took a long sip of his beer.

“I was wondering if you’d show up to see me off.” You murmured, meeting him face to face once more. It felt right, seeing him before the end.

“Leia said I should give this to you myself. I heard you’d been looking for one, Jedi Master.” Luke held up a saber, his second. The green one. You’d wondered what had happened to it, but had never had the time to investigate that yourself. You didn’t even know where to start looking, to be honest.

You nodded. “For Finn. Thank you.”

“Three Padawans. They’re all doing well under your instruction. I…well, I’m really proud of you, you know. You’re really doing it. You’re fostering a new generation of Jedi.”

“Trying to. It would be…well, it would be easier with you here.” You said softly, daring to meet his eyes, to imagine the life where you got to stay. Where you and Luke started the Jedi again, together. Where Kylo never turned to the dark side and the First Order never rose to power.

It would have been nice. Growing old with him. Living that dream. But it was only ever that. A dream. Never had it ever been real to you, even when you begged the Force for it to be so.

“I know. I’m sorry, Princess. But, for what it’s worth, I think it’s gonna work out.”

“You do?”

“I do. You and that pilot of yours are good together. He’s…determined. A fighter. One hell of a pilot. And you can tell him I said that. He’s pretending not to look over here right now, looking out of the corner of his eye. Checking on you.”

“Sounds like Poe.” You chuckled. “Did you know about…him? Us?”

“It might have crossed my mind a few times.” Luke admitted, rubbing at his ghostly beard. “I knew you’d be okay, regardless. That you had someone like him to help you pick up the pieces.”

You nodded, reminiscing softly on your relationship. On both relationships.

Luke met your eyes. He closed them, and his form shifted, back to his younger self. The Luke Skywalker you had loved. The Luke you had fought alongside, who’d been your everything. Your partner, your fellow Jedi, your best friend. You didn’t fight him this time, let him keep the form. You knew you needed to hear these words from your Luke.

“We started this path. You and I. Together. You and Rey are going to finish it. I can’t see how it ends, no one can, but the Force will guide you. And I’ll be right there, by your side.” He reached for you and you stepped forward, hugging him, his form solidifying in your hold, arms tight around you.

You closed your eyes, letting out a long breath.

“I always loved you, you know.” Luke confessed.

“I know. I loved you, too.” You replied, pulling away to look at that youthful face one last time. Your former lover. Your friend. “Thank you. For everything, Luke.”

And then he was gone, fading right before your eyes until you were left there with the open air, a cold lightsaber hilt in your hand.

You turned back to the bonfire, making a beeline for Finn, who was leaned against a tree, trying to convince Rose to go with you guys the following day. She wasn’t having it.

“Finn, I, uh, got you a present.” You said.

“For me?” He asked, curiosity glimmering in his warm gaze. His smile dropped when he saw it, though, gripped in your hand. Luke Skywalker’s missing saber. His heart raced. “That’s not…”

“It is.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. You’re ready for it. If you’re coming with us tomorrow, you’re taking this saber.” You insisted, handing it to him and curling his fingers around it, forcing him to take it. “That’s my one condition.”

“What’s your condition for Poe?”

You grinned, rolling your eyes. “His rugged good looks are getting him on that mission, I’m afraid. I couldn’t say no to that face.”

Finn laughed at that. “So it’s really happening. We’re going.”

“We’re going. I…I’m kind of glad, actually. It’ll be nice to have you two along for the ride. One…last adventure. All of us together.”

Finn opened his arms, hugging you tightly. You rested your face against his strong chest, relishing the warmth, the moment between you. Teacher and student, but more importantly, friends. “Thank you. For this. For believing in me.”

“No, thank you. We’re gonna need all the Jedi we can get…”

You returned to Poe after, his eyes watching you for a long moment. You sat down on the log, side pressed to his. He wrapped an arm around you, resting his head against yours.

“Are we still not talking?” He dared to ask.

You chuckled a little. “I’m coming around on the idea.”

“Of what, talking to your boyfriend, or letting him come on your dangerous, galaxy-saving mission tomorrow?”

“Perhaps both.” You let out a breath. “Just had a conversation with my ex. He said he thinks we’re good together. He gave me his saber, to give to Finn.”

“The green one.”

“The green one.” You agreed.

“Mmm.” Poe nodded, turning his head to press a long kiss to your hairline, a hand ghosting over the crest of your wings. “Well, he and I will have to agree on that. I also think we’re pretty good together.”

You laughed. “Well, I’d hope so, at this point. He also said you’re one hell of a pilot. So there’s that.”

His eyes widened. “Luke Skywalker just told you he thinks I’m a good pilot.”

“He did, yeah.” You chuckled, kissing his cheek. “Anyone with eyes knows that, Poe. I happen to think you’re the best, but…I might be a little biased.”

You could feel it then, sitting right at the tip of his tongue. The L word. You knew he wanted to say it. Knew he’d practiced. Knew he was holding onto it for just the right moment. You could feel it there, lingering, hovering unsaid. Like all those times he’d dreamed of kissing you before you finally collided.

You turned your face, pulling him in for a long, sweet kiss, meeting his gaze, peering straight into his soul, he was sure. Sometimes, when you looked at him like that, it was like you were looking straight through him, at every thought floating around his mind.

You nodded, thumb grazing over the spot just beneath that little scar on his cheekbone. “I know.”

Your Dying Decree

In the morning, you woke in Poe’s arms. He was still sleeping, head tucked into the crook of your neck, curls tousled, tickling your skin. His breaths were long and slow, eyes closed, thick eyelashes resting against those pretty cheekbones.

He was so handsome, your pilot.

And yet, looking at him, you couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it would be to slip out now, leave him where it was safe. Well, relatively safer. There was no safe place in the galaxy for members of the Resistance now.

His arms curled tighter around you and he hummed, those warm brown eyes opening.

He chuckled, searching your face. “I kinda thought you’d be gone by now.”

“I thought about it.” You admitted, voice no more than a whisper.

“I know you did.” He smirked, peppering kisses up your neck, trailing to your lips, where he hovered for a moment, eyes soft, like he was memorizing every detail, just like this. “Just can’t get enough of me, huh?”

You giggled, rolling your eyes before pulling him into a kiss. “That and I knew you’d never forgive me if I left without you.”

Poe nuzzled his nose to yours, kissing your lips one last time before sitting up out of the bed, getting dressed. Your fingers hovered over the options at your disposal before settling on a black tunic, black pants. You were pulling a page from Luke’s book.

You carefully slipped your wings through the opening, securing everything in place and then pulling on your belts, equipping your saber. You braided the front of your hair back, out of the way, and then turned to find Poe staring, eyes raking down your form. He smiled to himself, then met your gaze, stepping forward to collect you in his arms.

“Looking very regal today, Princess.”

“Looking very…piratey today, pilot.” You said, smoothing your hands over the fabric of that shirt of his. Your fingers trailed down the buttons, or lack thereof. “So did it come like this or did you take them off yourself?”

He laughed loudly, cheeks reddening. “What, you don’t like it?”

“No, I never said that.” You said, a hand raising to his cheek. “You’re avoiding the question, Dameron.”

“They might have fallen off at some point, yeah.”

“Was a pair of scissors involved?”

He chuckled. “Alright, I can throw on a scarf if you’re so worried about it.”

“You might need one anyway, we are headed to the desert.” You told him, tucking a curl behind his ear.

The two of you gathered your things and walked out of the room, meeting Rey and Finn in the hallway, all dressed as well. You gave the two of them a nervous smile. The four of you met with Chewie, Threepio, and BB-8 in the hangar. Leia was standing there, a wistful look on her face. She could tell it was coming, the end. You were sure it brought back memories, sending the four of you off like this.

You walked over her, hugging her one last time. Her arms wrapped around you tight, a hand cradling your head. Your best friend. Your sister. Your General.

“May the Force be with You, Princess.” She said, eyes twinkling.

“And with us all.” You replied, tears pricking in your eyes.

You turned, joining the others in the Falcon. You walked into the cockpit. Chewie and Poe were hovering over the controls. Finn sitting behind Chewie. You settled into the seat behind Poe, putting a hand on his shoulder. He reached up to touch it, acknowledging your presence with warmth before getting back to the controls. Rey stood in the doorway, reaching for your hand. You gave it to her.

Chewie looked at you, roaring softly, melancholy on his voice.

“You’re right, Chewie. Just like old times.”

***

You landed on Pasaana hours later, Poe putting the Falcon down at the edge of a settlement. No, you realized. A festival. Threepio confirmed this as the six of you rounded the corner.

“Isn’t this lucky?” Threepio asked.

“Incredibly lucky.” Poe replied, voice dry. “Keep your heads down. Chewie. First Order is always running random patrols. Let’s split up. See what the locals know.”

The group split, speaking with some of the locals who were gathered for the festival of ancestors, wearing bright, silken garments. Rey stopped to talk to a little girl, aided by Threepio to translate. After, you saw her go stiff, standing straight, eyes glazed over. You knew what that meant. Kylo was in her head.

“You find anything?” Poe asked, touching your arm.

You shook your head, motioning to Rey. “That’s not good.”

“Mmm, alright. Let’s–”

“I found the fugitives! They’re here!” A Stormtrooper announced, words warbled through a helmet.

Poe reached for his blaster. He looked to Chewie and Finn. “We gotta go.”

You grabbed Rey and the group moved quickly through the crowd, tailed by the Stormtrooper until a man in a large helmet shot him straight through the eye, ushering you into a small transport. You eyed him up, his energy familiar, but it didn’t quite click until you were all inside just who he was.

“How did you find us?” Finn asked, looking at him.

He took off his helmet and you grinned. You should have known. He always had a habit of popping up right when you needed him most. It was Lando. “Wookies stand out in a crowd.”

Chewie roared happily and hugged him.

“It’s good to see you too, pal.” He nodded at you. “Your Highness. Back in the field?”

“It’s like I never left. What are you doing here?”

“Thought you might need some help. I traveled here with Luke, trying to find Exegol. Trying to find other things, too…” Lando’s eyes wandered to the gleaming medallion around Poe’s neck.

Oh. Figured.

Lando told you about Ochi, how he and Luke had tailed his ship to Pasaana. On the horizon, you could hear that fateful sound. TIE fighters. A lot of them.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” Lando said, peeking through the blinds. “Ochi’s ship is out past Lurch Canyon. Go.”

“Thank you, General.” Poe said, Chewie bidding him goodbye after.

“Thank you, Lando.” You said, touching his arm, meeting his eyes.

“Don’t thank me yet.”

You all stepped out of the ship, running through the sand. Poe led the way to some speeders, looking a little worse for wear. You watched as he popped a panel off, reaching into the wires, twisting them with skill, precision.

Hot-wiring, you realized. Your boyfriend was hot-wiring a speeder.

“I didn’t know you knew how to do that.” You noted.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Princess.” He glanced up, a few scout troopers rounding the corner. “We gotta go!”

You flitted your wings, hopping up onto one of the speeders, settling in beside Poe and Finn, Rey and Chewie on the other. Poe steered with grace, guiding it across the desert planet as a pair of Trooper speeders trailed.

You used your saber to deflect their shots. Two of the troopers launched into the air, flying on jetpacks.

“They fly now?!” Finn asked.

Poe turned his attention ahead, determination on his brow. “They fly now!” Poe steered into a narrow valley, losing sight of them behind you. “We lose ‘em?!”

“I don’t think so.” You shook your head. Soon enough, one of them pulled ahead of you, cutting you off.

“Time to use that training, baby.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” You reached out, using the force to push hurl the Stormtrooper speeder straight into the rock in front of it, where it exploded in a burst of flame.

Finn and Poe cheered and you pulled out of the valley, meeting back up with Rey and hers. One of the troopers in the sky reemerged, shooting the engine of Rey’s speeder, causing it to explode, sending her and Chewie and BB-8 into the air. The speeder the rest of you were on went next, throwing all of you into the sand. You used the Force to cushion the landing as best as you could and you all shot at the trooper until you took out his jetpack, sending him crashing down into one of the jagged mountains.

It was only after that you seemed to notice you were slipping into a pool of pebbles. Perfectly round. A sinking field.

Poe had landed flat on his back, struggling in them, trying to swim out. “The hell is this?”

“Sinking fields! Grab onto something!”

You were up to your hips in it. You reached for Poe, watching in horror as he slipped lower and lower. “Poe? Poe!”

“(Y/N)! I love–!” His curls slipped beneath the pebbles, words swallowed up as he went under.

“Rey! Rey, I never told you–” Finn shouted, slipping under next.

You let out a cry, struggling for a few moments before surrendering to the pull, and descending down with the rest of them.

It was dark, the pebbles shifting around your body, encasing every bit of you until your legs found open air beneath you. You kicked, struggling as your body moved through, head still enveloped in total darkness. You could hear Poe’s voice beneath you, then felt his hand on your leg, arms wrapping around you as you fell into what seemed to be a cave.

He met your eyes, brushing dirt out of your face. “You alright?”

“Fine. Where are the others?”

Chewie fell beside you. Finn walked out from a cavern, and Rey walked from another, everyone accounted for, even the droids.

You shook out your wings, pebbles cascading onto the stone floors. You touched your saber, making sure it was still there, hadn’t been lost on the way down.

“Where are we?”

“In a cave of some kind.” Threepio explained.

“I thought we were goners.” Finn said, voice filled with relief.

“Me too,” Poe confessed, giving you a very loaded look, eyes searching yours, as if asking if you’d heard what he’d said before going under.

You had. His last words to you would have been a confession of his love. Your heart broke even thinking about it. You reached for his hand, squeezing it. He squeezed back, letting out a long breath. You were okay. You both were.

“What is this place?” Rey asked. The group started poking around. Rey ignited her saber, you, yours. Poe lit his flashlight, which paled in comparison. Eventually, you found Ochi’s speeder, a bad sign. With it, Ochi’s remains.

He’d never gotten out of the cave. He’d died there, and Luke’s quest for Exegol with him.

On the ground, you spotted a knife. The energy from it was…horrible. Dark.

You held your saber out to Poe. “Can you hold this?”

“Uhhhh, sure.” He replied, bathed in the pink light of its blade. He gingerly took the hilt of it, not daring to move it a single inch. He’d never touched a lightsaber before. Well, aside from helping you build it, of course. But holding it while it was activated was different. It felt…forbidden, almost.

You bent down and picked up the dagger, studying it. Sith Runes. Figured. It…felt like it was burning your hand. The longer you held it, the worse you felt. You tried to read it, tried to garner where it was from, what it would do, but it hurt. Badly.

You let out a pained yell and dropped it, clutching your hand like you’d been physically burned.

“Are you okay?” Rey asked with concern.

“That thing…” You pointed to the dagger. “Is made of evil. It…wow, holy fuck.”

Poe stared at you, watching as you recovered, still holding your lightsaber like it was a bomb.

You chuckled a little, reaching for it. “Thank you. Give me that, flyboy.” You powered it down, clipping it to your belt.

He reached out and touched your arm, eyes searching your face for any signs of damage. You gave him a warm look, touching his hand.

“They are Sith Runes. I believe they are directions to the location of the Sith Wayfinder.” Threepio reported.

“Great. Where is it?” Poe asked.

“I am forbidden from translating it, I’m afraid. The Republic outlawed all Sith languages nearly a century ago. To do so would be against my programming.”

“So you know where it is, you just can’t tell us?” Finn repeated, sounding as annoyed as you all felt.

“Precisely. My apologies, Master Finn.”

“Well that’s just great.” Poe sighed, hands on his hips. “What now?”

“We need to take it with us. Find somewhere to have it translated. Maybe the answer is on Ochi’s ship.” Rey reasoned.

You nodded, but didn’t reach for the dagger. Instead, Chewie picked it up, putting it in his messenger bag. He put a hand on your shoulder, a wordless message. He would carry it for you. Your loyal Wookie. Sometimes, you weren’t sure what you would do without him.

The group continued moving, trying to find a way out of the cave. Eventually, you came across a pile of rocks, layered in front of what appeared to be an opening. Focusing, you and Rey moved the pile out of the way, sunlight streaming through the hole you created. Once you were out, you headed up onto the bluff to Ochi’s ship. Poe managed to crack it open and led the rest of you inside.

It was very clearly abandoned. There were cobwebs clinging to nearly every surface, a thick layer of dust on every shelf, panel, and surface. You each picked a corner and started looking around for anything that could be of use. BB-8 made a discovery of his own, a small droid with a large wheel and a cone-shaped face, who, once booted up, started rolling around curiously. Rey reached out for him, but he backed away, seemingly traumatized by whoever had owned him before. Probably Ochi.

“What were you going to say before?” Rey asked Finn finally. You could tell it had been eating at her.

“What?”

“In the sinking fields. You said you’d never told me something.” She pushed, looking through the shelf beside him. “What was it?”

“We can talk later.” Finn said, dropping his voice, eyes serious and vulnerable.

“When we’re not here?” Poe asked with a chuckle.

“What, you wanna finish your dying decree right here, Poe?” Finn fired back.

“Not particularly.” He muttered, deflated.

You walked over and touched his arm, slotting beside him, searching for…well, anything, really. Anything you could use. He looked at you, eyes searching once more, looking for…well, anything. A reaction to what you’d heard.

You wanted to say it. Wanted him to, but you’d known from your conversations with the other pilots, the other ladies on base, that Poe Dameron didn’t say that word. Ever. He’d never said it to someone. Not like that, at least.He’d had his share of conquests, sure, but what the two of you had was decidedly different. It would have been his last dying breath, and you respected that. You didn’t want to force him out of it just because you hadn’t all died in that sinking field. But the fact that it was on the tip of his tongue, always seemed to be, meant that what you had between the two of you was real.

But then again, the only confirmation you needed of that was the band of braided leather around your wrist, the healer’s pendant from your home planet hanging from his neck.

Instead, you wrapped an arm around his waist, thumb rubbing a circle on his hip. You gave him a loving squeeze before refocusing on the task at hand.

Rey peered out the window, her eyes widening as she spotted Kylo’s TIE fighter, speeding across the sand. “He’s here.”

“You want me with you?” You asked, reaching for the hilt of your saber.

Rey nodded and you followed her out of the ship without another hesitation. You readied your blade, watching as Rey launched herself into the air, flipping as she sliced off one wing of his TIE, sending him into a death spiral, straight into the jagged rocks.

He climbed out of the ship’s wreckage and launched himself into a duel. He slashed at Rey with hatred. With rage. With…longing. Confusion, even. He was still conflicted, that much was clear.

You joined the fight, covering Rey’s back. Red, Blue, and Pink clashed, sabers whumming, singing as they swung through the air, colliding again and again. Kylo started his usual banter, trying to get in Rey’s head. But then he turned to you, venom on his tongue, fire in his eyes.

“And you, the so-called princess of a long-gone planet. You slept through the destruction of your home planet, gave your life for a lost cause. Who are you to come here, acting to be the authority on this war, the state of the galaxy?”

“I’m nobody. I’m just a girl. But I know right from wrong. I can feel it, like she can. You know it, too. You’re fighting it so hard. Why? To prove yourself? You’re just like my brother and it’s pathetic.” You said, saber sparking against the unstable red of his. “You have a family who loves you. A mother who would die for you. She shouldn’t still believe in you, but she does.”

Something faltered in his gaze. He opened his mouth to fire back, “Luke Skywalker–”

“Failed me, too. He left me to sleep in a fucking pod for thirty years. You don’t see me picking up with the First Order to get revenge on the galaxy for it.” You thrust your saber forward, throwing him to the ground.

Rey used the Force to push him back, through the sand.

“REY! They got Chewie!” Finn called, motioning frantically to a transport, taking off into the air. Rey reached forward, trying to stop the transport. You reached up to help her, but the two of you still weren’t enough.

“Finn, we need you!” You called, encouraging him to help.

Nodding, Finn reached for the transport, too, his power combining with the two of yours and bringing the transport down onto the ground, its engines bursting into flames, the metal crunching with a deafening screech.

You took off at a run, wings carrying you across the desert winds, towards the transport. The ramp lowered and a cluster of Stormtroopers and Scouttroopers came out, blasters blazing. You handled them quickly, learning almost instantly that Chewie was not there. In fact, the transport was empty.

“He’s not here!” You called, flying back up to Ochi’s ship as Rey and Finn ran up into the ramp. “There must have been another transport. He’s not here.” You reported, catching your breath, wings flicking a few times before folding down again.

“Fuck. Well, what now?” Poe asked, a hand trailing down his face.

“He had the knife.” Finn added, hands on his hips, deep in thought.

“He had the knife…” Poe repeated. “And they have the Falcon.”

“Well then we’re just gonna have to go get all three.” You said, the plan unrolling itself in your mind. “Get onto that Star Destroyer and get them all back.”

Poe nodded, mulling it over himself. “Alright. I’ll plot a course. Hang onto something.”

The Legacy of Your Downfall

Poe pulled Ochi’s ship into the hangar of the Star Destroyer, parking it with precision and skill, lowering the ramp. The four of you raced out, blasters pulled, shooting at the handful of Stormtroopers that approached.

“Where do we start?” Poe asked.

“This way.” You and Rey pointed at the same time, tuning into the things you were looking for with what could only be the force.

Rey turned back to look at the droids. “You three stay here.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Threepio said, sounding relieved. You ran ahead with the others, blasting your way through halls, sneaking past droves of patrolling troopers until finally, you felt like you were being pulled in different directions. The knife was one way, Chewie was the other.

“What’s that look for?” Poe asked, searching your expression.

You pointed both ways. “The knife is down this hall. Chewie is back that way.”

“Divide and conquer?” Finn suggested. “We’ll go get Chewie, you two go get the knife and our gear.”

You nodded, giving Poe one last lingering look. His hand ran down the length of your arm, touching you until the very last second as you went your separate ways. You and Rey raced down the hall, turning a corner and finding a stockroom, where they were keeping the knife, as well as all the gear and weapons they’d found on Chewie and any other prisoners they had.

Rey slung Chewie’s bandolier across her shoulder, tucked the knife into her belt. You gave the room one final sweep before leaving, heading back towards where you’d sent the boys. Rey lingered in the hall, her eyes landing on one door in particular. You knew it couldn’t be good.

“What?”

“There’s…something else.” She said, voice soft. She took a step closer to it, then another. The door slid open and inside was a stark white room. Kylo’s you realized, when your eyes fell on something you hadn’t seen in thirty years. Vader’s helmet. Or, what was left of it, rather.

A chill ran down your spine.

“Go meet with the others. I’ll find you.”

“Rey…I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“Trust me. I…I know what I’m doing.” She said, desperation at the edge of her words. “I’ll keep him distracted. Buy us time.”

You weighed the odds for a moment before nodding. “Alright. But hurry.”

She handed you Chewie’s bandolier, the knife. You hissed, tucking it away before you felt those feelings again. You ran down the hall, stopped by the scorching shock of an electrified melee weapon. At first everything hurt, and then, all at once, everything went black.

***

You came to, leaned back horizontal, arms held in the thick metal bounds of an Imperial Interrogation Chair. You groaned. It wasn’t your first time in one. But you’d been hoping the last time would be the last time you ever had the pleasure.

“Perfect timing, Your Highness.” Maddox’s voice dripped with venom as another prisoner, this one conscious. “I’ve brought another guest to join us.”

“You fuckin’ monster, I’ll kill ya!” Poe threatened, yelling out in pain when one of the Stormtroopers escorting him zapped him again. They threw him onto a second chair, both of you strung up side by side.

“Should have known it would be you. Couldn’t finish the job on Hoth, huh? Had to have a Stormtrooper fetch me for you?” You chuckled, voice deep and rolling in the back of your throat, eyes half-lidded as you stared up at your husk of an older brother.

The darkness inside Maddox had been eating at him, literally. He looked awful. Eyes yellow and ringed with dark purple bags, deep wrinkles in his sagging skin. The tips of his fingers were inky black, and behind him were the tatters of his wings, the ones you had cut off with your saber.

He slapped you. “Quiet!”

“Don’t you dare–” Poe started, quieted by another jolt of electricity.

“You thought you could hide your precious pilot from me, didn’t you, Princess? Thought you could keep him tucked away in the corners of your mind where I couldn’t see?” Maddox chided, shaking his head. “It figures that the most important person in your life would be someone so weak. So vulnerable. So…human. I will show you precisely what I felt. I will rip your wings from your back with my bare hands. But first…”

Maddox leaned forward, eyes set on Poe, concentration gleaming in those wicked eyes. Poe stirred, eyes widening as he realized what was happening. He’d been through this once before. Force Torture. And he hadn’t been a fan.

You steeled yourself against the chair, taking a deep breath and focusing. You built a shield around Poe’s mind, around yours, imagined them hovering right in front of your foreheads, blocking out the mind probe that Maddox was using, attempting to break you. To…to kill Poe.

Maddox chuckled, amusement brimming behind his frustration. “You can’t possibly shield the two of you forever. Your resolve will weaken.”

You strained, shaking your head, jaw set on edge. “Nope. I can.”

He kept pushing. You kept blocking, an invisible duel between the two of you. Literally a mind game. Why he didn’t shock you then and there and force your hand, you weren’t sure. You could tell he wanted to win. He wanted the pride that came with beating you. He wanted the reassurance that he was stronger than you. That was what it had always been about to him.

“You’re…stronger than I thought, I will give you that.” He admitted, pushing harder.

You rose to meet him. “Trained by the best, unlike you. Even with me strapped to a fucking chair, you’re still second-best.”

A bubble of rage surged and you flinched, head thrown back against the chair. You let out a pained groan, struggling to keep up your wall.

“Baby…baby, it’s okay. I’m…I’m okay. You can let me go.” Poe said, watching as Maddox dug deeper, trying to break you.

You couldn’t talk anymore, the focus it required too much to allow even the tiniest slip. You shook your head, holding up your wall despite the way it grew heavier and heavier, like pushing a snowball up a hill.

“Kill me. Let her go.” Poe begged. “Please, just…”

You shook your head, letting out a broken, “NO!”

Maddox grimaced at the force of your yell, some pain forcing its way from you to him. He recovered quickly, continuing to push until finally, the door burst open. A blaster fired directly into Maddox’s stomach, catching him off guard. He collapsed to the floor and then slid, Finn using the Force to push him back, away from the two of you.

The weight was lifted and you let out a breath, head leaning back against the chair. Poe reached for your hand, fingertips coming just short of yours.

Finn raced over, unlocking them. As soon as you were upright, you just about collapsed into Poe’s arms, tears running down your cheeks. “Don’t you ever offer your life for mine again! Ever.”

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, head tucked into your neck, voice breaking at the ends. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I thought he was gonna kill you, baby. I…I couldn’t…”

“No, he was going to kill you. Make me watch. Then he was going to kill me.” You told him, reaching up to touch his face. You pulled him in for a tearful kiss. “I…Poe…”

“I know.” He nodded, nose resting against yours. “Are you okay? We gotta get out of here.”

“I have to do something first.” You said, rising to your feet. Your wings rose up behind you, emerging from their folded form, spread to their full wingspan, proud. You used the Force to pull your saber from the pedestal on the wall, where it had been placed by the troopers that apprehended you. You ignited it, walking towards Maddox’s collapsed form.

Blood ran from the corner of his mouth and he stared up at you with a wicked gleam in his eye. “Come to finish the job?”

“Something like that.” You said, staring at him with disdain. With mourning. Mourning the brother he could have been. The bond you could have shared. The person he could have grown to be. Instead, it was a monster at your feet. Cruel, wicked, heartless and hollow.

“You killed me thirty years ago, (Y/N), when you killed the love of my life.”

“Insidia?!” You asked, incredulous. “I knew you were power-hungry, I didn’t know you were insane.”

He laughed. “You’re one to talk. You could have anyone in the galaxy. Any number of powerful Force users with which to start a powerful legacy and you settle for the likes of a human pilot. Pathetic.”

“You think power is everything. You always have. You’ve never understood love. Insidia didn’t love you. She didn’t love anyone. She wanted power, just like you. Maybe you two really were a match made in hell.” You laughed bitterly, shaking your head and spinning your saber menacingly. “You killed our parents. You killed our healers. You destroyed our home. You tried to kill me. So many times. It’s over, Maddox, Mothim, whatever name it is you want etched into the legacy of your downfall.”

“It will never be over. Not for you, not for the Resistance, not for–” You plunged your saber into his chest, watching the light leave his eyes.

You deactivated the blade, clipping it to your belt. Your wings fell once more, folded down and out of the way. You felt Poe’s hand on your shoulder, all the eyes in the room on you.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” You said.

They nodded, all of you headed towards the hangar.

“How’d you guys get out of there?” Poe asked Finn and Chewbacca.

Chewbacca roared, informing him that General Hux had been the First Order spy all along, that he’d let them go.

“What?!” Poe replied with a laugh of disbelief, shooting at a few Stormtroopers as you passed them. “I knew it!”

“No you did not!” Finn replied.

You rounded the corner into the hangar, where the Millenium Falcon was waiting in all her glory. The droids had switched ships and you all ran up the ramp and inside as Stormtroopers began to gather. Soon you knew why. Kylo Ren was standing in the hangar, saber drawn.

“Rey?”

“I need to do this. Him and me. Go with the others.” Rey said, eyes meeting yours. “Go with Poe.”

“I’m not leaving you here.”

“I’m not asking you to.” She assured.

You felt that tug of war again. Between what she said and what you felt was right. You could feel the light in him, however faint it was. Maybe this was finally the time she could pull the light through. Save Ben Solo.

Finally, you surrendered, following Poe and Finn into the ship, buckling into the cockpit as Poe and Chewie piloted the thing, using the exhaust to blow back Stormtroopers while Finn operated the blaster cannon.

Through the window, you used the Force to collapse a few pillars onto the gathering army of troopers, watching carefully as Rey and Kylo dueled.

A duel of the fates.

Finally, Rey got the upper hand. Poe swung the Falcon around and you ran down the ramp, reaching a hand out to her. She latched on, swinging around the ramp’s support beam and following you onto the ship.

Poe pulled the ship out of the planet’s atmosphere and into space, jumping through hyperdrive to a safe place where you all could regroup.

“What now? We don’t know where to go.” Finn said.

Your eyes wandered to Chewie, who once again was carrying the knife in his bag. You reached for him, for it. “Let me see it.”

“(Y/N), are you sure…” Poe said, hesitant to let you touch it after the way you’d reacted the last time, the pain it had put you in. It had already been a long, traumatic day. He didn’t want to push it.

“I’m fine.” You replied, exhaustion eating at every piece of you. “I almost had it last time, I think I can get there this time. Some of my…problems just got resolved.”

He relented, watching with guarded brown eyes as you took the knife from Chewbacca. You sat on a box, wings shifting out of the way, hand wrapped around the hilt of the misshapen dagger. You closed your eyes, taking a breath, focusing on what it was, where it had come from, where it was leading you…

You were running through the trees on Endor, wings tucked under a green poncho. Leia on one side, Han and the pathfinders ahead. Kes motioned you forward and you followed, running down the route. Ewoks ran alongside. You took out Scouttroopers as you ran.

Finally, you came up on a hill, looking overhead. In the sky, the shadow of a large moon. Not a moon, no, the Death Star, silver in the daylit sky. You stared at it for a long moment.

You took a shuddering breath, finding yourself back in the cargo hold of the Falcon, surrounded by your friends. You handed Chewie the knife back.

“It’s near Endor. Deathstar wreckage.” You said. “Get in contact with the intel guys and see if they can get us a more concrete answer, but…that wayfinder is definitely there.”

“I’ll send a message.” Finn nodded, walking towards your communications console.

“You good?” Poe asked, eyes not leaving you. He sat on the box beside you and you reached for his hand as Chewie and Rey wandered off to tend to their tasks. He took your hand, fingers curling around yours and squeezing.

“Better now.”

Poe let go of your hand, pulling you into his arms instead. He held you tight, but so, so carefully, strong arms curling around your waist, his head resting on your shoulder, pressing kisses to your neck.

“I saw your dad.” You confessed, hands tracing patterns onto his back.

“My dad?”

“My vision. I was on Endor. It was brief, but…” You chuckled at the irony of it all. Of knowing his parents, of loving him.

Poe was your anchor to this time, the one redeeming thing your thirty-year skip had given you, the only thing that began to outweigh all of the things you had lost. This love, that look in his eye, the warmth that swirled between you every time you looked at each other, every time he held you in his arms…

Poe was worth it. And he never would have been yours if you’d stayed.

“What was he doing?”

“Pathfinding,” you said through a smile.

He pulled away to meet your eyes, a hand brushing down the side of your face, carefully touching the braid there before settling on your cheek. He pulled you in for a kiss, long and tender, lips moving in rhythm with your own.

Poe rested his forehead against yours, letting out a breath before confessing. “I still forget sometimes, that you’re older than me.”

“I’ve been told I look pretty good for fifty-four.” You laughed softly.

“Very good.” He agreed, kissing you again, hands slipping lower, to your hips, pulling you a little closer. “Very, very good.”

Poe readjusted, deepening the kiss before Finn cleared his throat in the doorway, staring at the two of you, still somewhat in shock that you were together, had been for a while, that you were familiar with each other like this. The two of you hastily pulled apart to look at him.

“Beaumont got a hit. (Y/N) was right. Moon in the Endor system, big chunks of Death Star scattered on its surface.” Finn reported, the two of you listening intently, Poe’s arm still hovering around your waist. “Oh, and Chewbacca said the landing gear is kinda fucked up.”

Poe stood from the box, helping you up after him. “How fucked up?”

Hold Your Fire

The landing had been rough, to say the least. You and Rey broke the fall as best you could, but using the Force on a ship was…much more difficult when you were inside said ship, headed down, down, down onto the surface of a moon in the Endor system.

The Falcon came to a skidding crash, sliding through the grass until finally, it stopped.

“Everyone okay?” Poe called, looking around, making sure no one had gotten thrown around too much. BB-8 gave him a thumbs-up with his lighter attachment.

The group started moving around the cabin, checking things. Poe read meters, checked controls. You and Rey managed to get the ramp down and you all started the hike up the hill, cresting over the top of it, towards the raging sea.

There it was, the Death Star. Or what remained of it, at the very least. You stared for a long moment, a feeling of darkness washing over you. Your eyes traced over the shape of the wreck and goosebumps pricked up all down your arms, though you weren’t sure if it was from the sight or the cold winds.

“Wow…” Rey murmured, looking up at it. “Were you ever…?”

“On it, no. Not that one. The first one, yeah. I was boots on the ground on Endor, so Luke and I could communicate with each other through the Force. Him up there, me down here.” You said.

Rey stared at the shape of the wreck, taking the dagger from her belt and sliding it along the silhouette. It lined up perfectly, a sliding gold ruler pointing to the exact spot. That was it. The spot where the wayfinder was hidden.

Horses galloped in the distance behind you. You all turned, weapons drawn. Poe held out his blaster as a group of scavengers rode their steeds towards you, stopping a safe distance away.

“Rough landing.” The woman leading the pack said. She had a head of gorgeous curls, a pair of goggles tucked along the top of her face, dressed all in silken green. Almost…Mariposan. Almost.

“I’ve seen worse.” Poe countered, a hand extended in front of you, protective, weapon still drawn.

“I’ve seen better.” She said. “Are you Resistance?”

“That depends.” Poe answered, untrusting.

Her eyes fell on you, gaze sliding down the length of your wings, and something in her gaze softened. “Princess…”

“You…know me?”

“Know of you. We received a transmission from some Resistance Scouts, that you were looking for this place. That you’re the last hope.”

“We need to get out to that wreck. There’s something inside there we need.” Rey told her.

“I can take you there by water.”

“You seen the water?” Finn asked.

“Not now. Too dangerous. We can go first light tomorrow.” The woman said.

“We need to go now. We don’t have the time.” Rey insisted.

“Or the choice.” Poe said, turning towards her and the rest of her crew. “Let’s get that ship fixed. Do you have any parts?”

“Some. I’m Jannah.”

“I’m Poe.” He introduced, leading the rest of you back towards the Falcon’s resting place.

Rey stared back at the wreckage, lingering.

You put a hand on her arm. “They’re right. We’re gonna need a way off this rock.”

She nodded, following reluctantly.

Once you got back inside the ship, Poe and the others started repairs, pulling open panels and reaching inside. He had a screwdriver held in his mouth while he worked. You noticed then, finally, that there was a wrap around his bicep. He stopped, holding his arm and hissing in pain.

“When did this happen?” You asked, eyes wide, pulling him away from his work.

“Got shot on the Star Destroyer. It’s fine. I’ve had worse.”

“I know you have. Let me see.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Poe.” You said sternly. “It’ll only take me a second.”

He exhaled a breath, letting you pull him from the panel, passing the screwdriver to Chewie. You stepped into a hallway, pushing him onto a box, forcing him to sit. With careful fingers, you untied the scrap of fabric.

He winced, eyes locked on you and your gentle movements. “You should save your strength, Princess. You’ll need it.”

You shook your head, meeting his eyes as you rolled up his sleeve, the blaster hole singed into the fabric. “I need you at your best too, flyboy. I can tell it hurts.”

“You can feel it?”

“Mmhmm.” You nodded, hand hovering over the injury. “We’re connected, you and I. When you hurt, I hurt.”

“Through the Force? But I’m not…”

“You don’t have to be for me to…tune in. I’m always tuned into you, more or less. Have been for…” You chuckled. “A lot longer than we’ve been seeing each other, even.”

He smiled softly at that, eyes glimmering in the dim light. A teasing smirk took up residence on his soft lips, eyebrow quirked up at your admission. “Youuuu~ had a crush on me.”

“I did. I do, actually. Is that alright with you, Commander Dameron?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll let it slide, Your Highness,” he said, watching as you zoned out, taking a deep breath before pushing life energy from yourself to the blaster wound on his arm. The pain ebbed instantly, the wound fading away, replaced with new skin. He sighed, reaching for your hand, playing with your fingers in his. “You are…somethin’ else, you know that?”

“So you’ve said.” You grinned, pressing a kiss to his lips, a quick one. He leaned in after you pulled away, lips chasing yours. You smirked at him. “Who has the crush now?”

“Oh, Princess, I’ve always had a crush on you…” He murmured. Poe touched his arm, squeezing the spot clinically, but there was no pain there, just smooth skin in place of the gaping wound that had been causing him so much pain for the last few hours.

“Back to work?”

“Yeah.” Poe nodded, walking back over to the panel he’d been working on, where Chewie had all but wrapped it up.

BB-8 rolled up the ramp and into the ship, beeping at Poe, telling him he couldn’t find Rey.

“What do you mean you haven’t seen her?”

You knew immediately what that meant. You raced down the ramp, out into the grass, using your wings to flit up the hill, watching as Rey took a skimmer onto the raging waters, struggling to get past each wave.

“REY!” You called out to her, but your words were swallowed up by the winds. “Fuck.”

“We have to go after her.” Finn said once he and Poe caught up, Jannah just behind them on her horse. “Can you fly across?”

“On wind like this, no way, pal.” Poe said, arms crossed, hand grabbing your hip like he was afraid you’d try. “Her wings aren’t made for a gap like this.”

“I’d be a fly on a windshield. Or…sharp rocks, in this case.” You said, looking down at the jagged shore beneath you.

“I need to get over there.” Finn said, determined.

You shook your head. “No, we can’t.” You watched as Kylo’s TIE Fighter landed on the wreckage, your stomach sinking. “Oh, that’s just great.”

“We have to go help her!” Finn said again.

“We can’t! Whatever she’s meant to do out there…” You reached, the Force calling to you. This was it. Her final stand against him. Whatever was going to happen out there, she needed to do it alone. “This is her fight. Her and Kylo.”

Finn let out a frustrated sigh, meeting your eyes. You knew he could feel it, too. You were right. They needed to get through this themselves. There was no way for you to get across the gap anyway.

And so, you waited.

You watched as red and blue clashed, watching, feeling, reaching through the Force, trying to feel exactly what was going on out there.

The TIE fighter took off. Then, the skimmer came back. You reached for your saber when you saw who it was coming out of it. It wasn’t Rey in the skimmer. It was Kylo.

Poe raised his blaster as soon as he saw him, Finn reaching for his saber as well.

Kylo approached slowly. He…didn’t have his saber, you realized. You stared at him with wide eyes as he pulled himself up the cliff, looking at all of you with vulnerable eyes, a saber hole in his black tunic.

Rey had healed him, you realized, eyebrows furrowing.

You looked him over, eyes sweeping and critical, and put a hand on Poe’s blaster, lowering it.

“Hold your fire.” You said, voice quiet, eyes still locked on Kylo’s dark, looming figure.

“Hold my–Baby, that’s Kylo Ren!”

You looked back at Poe, daring to take your eyes off of the former Sith for a few moments. His expression softened once he saw yours. You weren’t worried at all. Not a hint of fear in those eyes. He trusted you, and if you thought it was okay, then maybe…

“Ben, right?” You asked, turning back to look at him.

He smiled, tentative and unsure, eyes searching each of you for malice, for distrust. There was none. At least, not in your eyes. Finn and Poe looked like they still needed to be convinced. “Ben. Ben…Solo.”

You searched him for the heavy darkness that had burdened his soul for so long, but came up empty. Whatever had happened out there, with Rey, had left him changed. Had healed him in more ways than one.

“Is Rey okay?” Finn asked, gaze hardened.

Ben nodded. “Took my TIE Fighter. Intends to go to Exegol alone. I can help you get in touch with her, breach its communications.”

You nodded. “Alright. You…you can come with us, but…don’t be surprised if some of the folks on base don’t take too kindly to the sight of you. We’ll have to warn them you’re coming so they don’t…shoot you on sight.”

He scoffed, nodding in agreement. “I don’t think I could blame them for that after everything. But…I owe you all. I want to help, before it’s too late.”

March of the Resistance

The trip back to Ajan Kloss was…tense. Ben sat at the sabacc table, staring at the checkered tiles. Poe and Chewbacca were in the cockpit, piloting you all back to safety. Finn stood with you against the wall, watching Ben, waiting for him to say something.

You’d already spoken to Leia, warned her. She’d felt it, though. She knew you were bringing her son back to her.

He searched you, you could felt him poking around your energy with the Force, bristling slightly.

“Sorry. Force of habit.” He retracted immediately, staring at his hands, shaking with worry.

“It’s…alright. You can ask if you have questions.”

“You knew my father.” He blurted, eyes meeting yours. “My mother. You’re…they took me to your grave when I was young. Your…pod.”

“My pod…” You agreed, nodding slowly. “I did know them. I was good friends with them. Your mother was my best friend. Basically a sister to me. In another life, I would have been your aunt.”

He nodded, listening. He swallowed the lump in his throat, eyes glossy. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.” You told him, voice gentle and sincere. You let out a sigh. “But I’m not the only one you’re going to need to apologize to.”

Ben nodded, solemn. He didn’t reply after that.

Finn watched the interaction with guarded eyes. You couldn’t imagine how he was feeling now, a former Stormtrooper standing in front of Kylo Ren. Redeemed or not, there had to be a lot going on in his head. You put a hand on Finn’s arm, heading towards the cockpit.

“How is he…?” Poe murmured, looking back to meet your eyes.

“Not hellbent on murderous destruction anymore. Any hits from Rey?”

“Yeah, she’s headed back, too. She’ll beat us there by a handful of minutes.” Poe said.

He reached for your hand and you gave it to him, letting him squeeze it for comfort. You were both okay, for now. But the final fight was coming. Like a tidal wave headed straight for the beach.

***

You landed in pandemonium, people rushing every which way around the base. Rey had beat you there, and was waiting when the Falcon landed, a little worse for wear, but fine otherwise.

Finn walked out of the ship first, hugging Rey tightly, the two of them talking to each other about something. You and Poe walked out next. The gathered Resistance members waiting in bated breath until, finally, Ben walked out, dressed all in black, saber-less. They all murmured, watching his every move.

As odd as it was, it was kind of nice to have them whisper about someone else for a change.

Leia stepped forward, slow, tentative. She hadn’t seen him in person in…years. From a distance, sure, but not face to face like this. The tension was palpable, the Force hanging between them nearly enough to throw you from your feet.

Poe put a hand on your arm, watching as Kylo Ren himself fell to his knees in front of his mother, tears streaming from his eyes. She knelt beside him, the two of them murmuring to each other, reconciling. It felt wrong to watch, so you stepped away, helping the others round up equipment.

Not long after, a meeting was called in the hangar, the whole Resistance gathered around to listen to the intel from Ben. He had been on Exegol, talked to the Emperor. He knew what was waiting for you there, where you all had to go, what had to be done to stop Palpatine once and for all.

You felt that sinking feeling in your chest, the one you’d gotten before the fight with Insidia. You tried to shake it off, but you knew what it meant. You…might not make it out of this one.

Poe and Finn pitched their plan to the others, discussing the ground attack on the Star Destroyers, the plot to block their communications, prevent them from taking off.

“We have friends out there. They’ll come if they know there’s hope.” Poe insisted, fire in his eyes, a hand resting on his belt. “The First Order wins by making us think we’re alone.” He met your eyes. “But we’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them.”

You nodded, listening to the rest of their speech, Finn and Poe, calling the shots. It was nice. Your boys. Following in the footsteps of those before you. Poe caught your gaze, tilting his head as if to say ‘your turn.’

You took a breath, gathering your thoughts. You had many. You squeezed Rey’s hand, which had been in yours for the last several minutes, Soren standing on your other side, Laesynda beside him. Your family. Your growing pack of Jedi.

“I didn’t expect to survive the first war. A lot of us didn’t. Good people gave their lives for this cause. Thirty years ago, mere months ago…We have been fighting this battle for a generation. I only got a taste of that peace. Two years of it. I’ve seen it and…I know the end. I didn’t expect to disappear, to come back in the midst of another war. But…I am honored to stand among you, my brothers and sisters, my nephew…to call you my family and fight by your side. I am with you to the bitter end. We will end this war, bring peace to the galaxy, destroy Palpatine, permanently this time. I want each and every single one of you to live in that peace, to plant the seeds of your new lives, and watch them grow in a world free of the First Order’s tyranny. May the Force be with each of you today.”

“And with us all.” Laesynda finished, her hand on your shoulder, a proud look in her eye. The group dismissed, heading their separate directions, running and working in tandem to prepare for the fight ahead.

You turned to your Jedi. Your team. Rey, Finn, Soren…Ben.

“I’m going with ground support.” Finn said. “They need me.”

“I know they do. And they’re lucky to have you.” You said, nodding. “Soren?”

“Stay here?” He asked, expecting the same answer from his Jedi Master, but instead, you shook your head.

“Nope. You’re coming with us. You’re ready now. I know you are. You’ve got us with you. We need you now more than ever.” You smiled, gently. “My Padawan.”

He nodded, determined, eyes sparkling with that Rebel moxie. He was your blood after all.

“I’ll meet you all at the Falcon. We’re wheels-up in thirty.”

Rey and Ben nodded, looking at each other, at your nephew. You left them for a moment, looking for Laesynda, who was face to face with a man around her age, maybe a hair older. He had Soren’s nose. Ah, your brother-in-law. He’d finally come around, right when you all needed him most.

You’d meet up with her in a few minutes, then.

You watched as the pilots ran around, dusting off their ships, tossing helmets to each other, mechanics rushing to get everything set for takeoff. You watched as Aspen ran past, her black hair in a braid. Snap, Jessika, Karé, running past, towards the hangar where Black Squadron’s X-Wings were.

BB-8 bumped into your leg, bobbling slightly as he looked up at you, telling you Poe was in the hangar, getting ready for take-off.

“How soon?”

He replied that it would be about fifteen minutes. You nodded, thinking.

“Can you record something for me, Bee? Something important?”

He nodded, rolling off somewhere private with you.

You knelt down to his level and sighed, preparing yet another speech. “Hey, flyboy. It’s uh, it’s me. If you’re seeing this…something bad happened to me on Exegol. And I’m…really sorry. For everything. For all of it. For leaving you. I know you don’t go throwing the L word around, and that’s okay, but…I love you, too, for the record. I heard what you said on Pasaana. I’ve felt it at the edges of your mind. I love you, too. I have for…a long time. You’re leaving soon, so I’m going to go say goodbye to you for real. But…I wanted you to have this, too, just in case. Every…every moment I’ve been by your side has been a moment well spent, and I wouldn’t trade a single one for all the credits in the galaxy. I hope you’re…safe and happy and well. I hope you live to be super, super old, all wrinkly and gray, and reminisce on the good old days, when you used to hang out with a princess. And if I don’t make it, I want you to fall in love again. To find someone else to give your heart to. I could never be mad at you for that.”

You paused, closing your eyes as you gazed into BB-8’s camera. “I love you, Poe Dameron. I hope you have a really great, peaceful life with this little droid by your side.”

BB-8 beeped at you, telling you that he was not, in fact, little, and you laughed a little, standing up and brusing yourself off.

“I know, I know. Now let’s go find him. I gotta say goodbye.”

You walked to the hangar beside BB-8 as he rolled along. Poe was looking around, somewhat frantic until he saw his little droid, you accompanying him, your strides long and graceful, wings drifting behind you magnificently.

“Mmmm, I do love that flight suit, flyboy.” You said, eyes roaming his figure in the orange fabric.

“There you are, Princess, I was getting ready for wheels-up in here and I couldn’t find my girl or my droid.” He put his hands on your arms, looking you over. “You okay? How you feeling?”

You nodded, meeting his eyes, bravery blossoming in your chest. “Good. I’m good. How are you, Commander?”

“Ready to get this shit over with.” He let out a tired breath, hands wandering from your arms to your hips, pulling you into his chest. “We’re gonna be okay, alright? You and I? I’ll see you after. Right here. Don’t be late.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” You said, voice soft, so much hidden in your words. “You be careful out there. Come back to me in one piece.”

He pulled away to look at you, smirking as his lips flicked down to your lips. “Of course, your Highness.”

He surged forward and kissed you, a long, passionate, earth-shattering kiss, tongue rolling over yours, arms tight around your waist. And then he pulled away, meeting your eyes again.

You stood there for a long moment, his arms around you. Your fingers drifted down to the healer’s pendant, glimmering in the dim light. He grabbed your hand, eyes searching yours, eyebrows knitted together, the heat palpable. The tension. The fear.

You pressed one last, quick kiss to his lips and turned to leave, glancing back at him. “See you later, Poe.”

As you took a few steps towards the edge of the hangar, he called out for you. “Hey, wait! I…”

You met his eyes, heart racing. You could feel it again, at the edge of his mind, the tip of his tongue.

He licked his lips. Swallowed. Then said, “I love you.”

Your jaw dropped, hand rising to your face as you let out a gasp. He’d said it. He’d actually kriffin’ said it.

“P-Poe…”

“I love you, (Y/N). I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”

You ran back into his arms with new fervor, kissing his lips like it was the last thing you’d ever do. He laughed into your mouth, tears welling in his eyes as he looked you over, searching your face, your eyes, almost wondering if he’d actually said it out loud this time.

You smiled, reaching up to readjust his curls. “I love you, too.”

He couldn’t keep the grin off of his face as he asked, “You’re not just sayin’ that?”

“No, I mean it. I…I love you, Poe Dameron. Don’t get yourself blown up out there.”

He chuckled, kissing you one last time. “I’ll try, sweetheart.”

Eyes on the Jedi

You stood in the Falcon, watching as Chewie and Lando piloted. Like old times. You shook with every movement, watching out the windshield, dread growing in your stomach. First, you all would go distract Palpatine. Then, the fleet would come, taking on the army of Star Destroyers.

You had an earpiece in your ear, listening as the pilots spoke to each other. Listening to Poe’s voice as much as you could stomach to.

“Black Leader to Falcon, how are we looking, General Calrissian?”

“Smooth and steady, Black Leader. The Jedi are ready.”

“How’s the Princess?”

Lando glanced back at you, chuckling softly. “Princess is good.”

“Good, good, glad to hear it. Let us know once you drop them off.” Poe said, voice walking that line between professional and concerned.

“Will do, Commander.”

You looked to the others, putting a hand on Soren’s arm, wings tensing. He looked nervous, sure, but…he also looked determined. Brave. Ready for the fight that lied ahead, no matter how terrifying.

Finally, Lando pulled the Falcon up to the mouth of the cave. A strange swirl of nostalgia fluttered around your heart as you looked at it, a sinking, bitter feeling in your core. Insidia’s laugh echoed across your mind one last time. Luke’s voice pushed it out.

I’m with you, Princess. Then and now. You’re not alone.

You nodded, eyes closing. You weren’t alone. You had Rey. Soren. Ben. Finn was out there, too. Poe. Lando and Chewie. Leia. You had friends and allies, new and old, standing with you as you stepped off of the Falcon and into immediate danger, saber igniting, lighting the dark with magenta.

Soren lit his saber as well, standing by your side, an extension of yourself in more ways than one. Your Padawan, your nephew, wielding your original saber, the one you had been wielding on your last day of your old life. The one he and mother had journeyed so far to find.

Rey and Ben led the way, Ben more familiar with this place since he had been there. You could feel the energy already, dark and all-consuming. A cacophonous choir of voices echoing off the walls, chanting. Cultists, you realized. Perhaps some of the same souls Insidia had rallied with the first time.

Among them, the Knights of Ren.

You shivered, finally getting a good look at them. You’d never seen them all face to face, or…face to mask, but they were here, looming like shadows, weapons giving off an eerie, unsettling red light.

You looked to Rey and Ben, telling them silently to move forward, that you and Soren would handle these guys. They nodded, running off while you and Soren launched into battle, swinging your sabers against the onslaught of weapons. There were six of them, two of you, but you’d trained him well, and had been training yourself. Your movements were graceful and precise, quick and fluid, using your wings in tandem with your body, using them to get leverage.

You rotated around Soren, working together, defending each other, attacking the knights as a unit. Nephew and Aunt. Pawadan and Jedi, like all those who had come before you.

You leaped over Soren, tucking your legs in for more momentum as you crashed down onto the last knight, slashing through his armor with one final blow.

Breathing heavy, you looked to Soren, searching him for any sign of injury. There was none. He was fine. He gave you a soft, reassuring smile and you nodded, leading him back to the chamber where Palpatine was, a cult of hooded figures around the edge of the large room.

He had Ben and Rey in a chokehold of Force energy, sapping them with his withered hands, draining the very life from them.

“NO!” You roared, hands thrown forward. A wave of invisible energy crashed into him, shocking him long enough to drop them onto the cold stone ground.

“Ah…I was wondering when you’d show up, Princess. How kind of you to join us…your original, let’s say…sacrifice, was enough to revive me in the first place. Insidia gave her life. You gave yours. Two lives to restore the one, true Emperor.”

“She tried, but she couldn’t kill me.” You said, helping Rey to her feet, Ben.

“Which is why it is a half-life I live. But not for long…”

He reached forward, trying to drain the life from you next, but you stood strong, blocking him. You heard the sounds of ships overhead, out above the cave’s opening. Explosions. The sound of X-Wings crashing, ships being destroyed. Star Destroyers blasting.

“Your love makes you weak.” Palpatine scolded, energy scathing the edges of yours, finally reaching. Taking. You dropped to your knees as the power flowed from you, a horrible numbness eating at the ends of your limbs, tingling in your fingers and toes.

“(Y/N)!” Rey called out as you sprawled to the floor.

Palpatine stopped, his withered flesh repairing itself from your energy. He let out a triumphant laugh, reaching up towards the sky, lightning flying from his fingertips, up at the Resistance ships.

At Poe.

Everything ached, chest burning. You had to get up. You knew you had to. But you just didn’t have the strength. Ben and Soren swung at Palpatine, but he threw them back as though they were weightless.

“(Y/N), please. I can’t…” Rey said, broken. “I can’t do this alone.”

“You’re not alone.” Luke’s voice said as his Force Ghost appeared beside the both of you.

“Help you, we will.” Yoda added, appearing beside Luke. Then Obi-Wan, who met your eyes with a wink. Anakin…All the great Jedi of old, gathered around you. The light rising to meet the dark.

“Get up, Princess. That’s not a request.” Luke goaded, lending you his strength. His face shifted to his younger form, the way he’d looked the last time you’d fought side by side.

“You sound like Han.” You grumbled, scraping yourself off of the cold, hard ground, warmth returning to your fingers. You ignited your saber, Soren and Ben returning to the fight alongside the army of spirits summoned by the Force. The light of the Jedi, the dark of the Sith, colliding one last time as Palpatine’s cultists flooded the arena.

It was all out war. Sabers slinging every which way, light bouncing off of the walls, Palpatine’s lightning coming to a stop as he was rushed by an onslaught of Jedi, his cultists dropping off one by one, dispatched quickly. It seemed he had sapped their strength, too, using their loyalty to make himself stronger. He hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Palpatine shot lightning at you, but Soren locked sabers with you, both of you pushing the lightning back onto him, weakening him just enough.

Rey and Ben united, using their combined power to drain the Emperor, dispersing the energy back into the Force, to restore balance.

“It’s…impossible…” He groaned, thrashing about as they took it back from him, every last ounce of stolen power.

“No. It’s not.” You said, standing with the two of them, helping them finish the job, draining and draining and draining until there was nothing left. Not even a body. Dissolved entirely into the Force.

There was a great rush of power after, an explosion of it, rushing out of the cave. You looked up to find Star Destroyers nose-diving out of the sky. The four of you shared a moment of relief, the rush of victory, as the Force Ghosts dissipated around you once more.

You met Luke’s eyes, a promise. You didn’t need him anymore. But someday, if you ever did, you knew he’d be there for you. Then, he vanished, too.

Rey called for Lando, hoping the Falcon was okay, but all you could think about was Poe. At some point, your earpiece had fallen out. You had no way to check on him, other than looking up, reaching with the Force. You were nearly too frazzled to find his energy up there, but…it was. You breathed in relief. He was okay.

The Falcon swept down to get you as the cave started to rumble, unstable from the blast of energy. You all climbed on board, the rest of the ground crew was there. Rey rushed to Finn, hugging him tightly. You met up with Jannah, nodding at her and acknowledging the rest of them before sliding into the cockpit, putting on a headset just in time to catch:

“Do we have any eyes on the Jedi? That cave is gonna blow.” Poe said, voice a little pitchy over the comms.

“Just Finn, Commander.” One of the other pilots said before you could interject. “He’s on board the Falcon.”

Poe swallowed, voice getting thicker. “This is Black Leader. I repeat, do we have any eyes on the Princess and the rest of the Jedi?”

You lowered the microphone, tapping into the comms. “Reading you loud and clear, Black Leader. The Princess and the rest of the Jedi are on board the Falcon, headed home.”

You heard the way his voice hitched, the relieved little sob that left his mouth. He cleared his throat, trying to sound professional as he replied, “G-Glad to hear it. We’ll see you at home, Princess.”

Lando smiled at you, steering the Falcon away from the cave and into hyperspace, into safety. “You two remind me a whole lot of people we know.”

“I know.” You chuckled. “A pilot and a princess, who would have thought?”

“You’re good together. When I saw you at the gala together that night, I thought you were definitely already together. That look in his eye…watching you use that Princess super-power of yours up close.” Lando confessed, eyes glimmering. “He’s good for you. Enjoy it.”

“Oh, I will. This time…I’m not going anywhere.”

The Pilot, the Prince

The Falcon came down smoothly at the edge of camp. Vehicles touched down left and right, Resistance members rushing out of them and into each other’s arms, celebrating a victory hard-won. You counted heads, looked for faces.

Aspen. Beaumont. Some of the rookies. No Black Squadron yet.

You kept searching faces, counting heads. Soren ran to Laesynda and the man you assumed was her husband. Beside him, your droid. Radia. She’d…been with him all along.

You looked for Poe’s X-Wing, but didn’t see it yet, so while the others on the Falcon dispersed, you ran to your sister, holding her in your arms, burying your face in her shoulder. She laughed, smiling brightly, pulling away to look at you and Soren. Both had returned to her. Both were fine. You could feel her settle as the weight of the galaxy eased off of her shoulders.

“(Y/N)...this is my husband. Marc. Marc, this is my sister.”

He offered his hand. He had dark brown hair, a dark beard, kind eyes. He was wearing a leather jacket and gloves, a blaster holstered to his belt. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Princess. Thank you for taking care of our son.”

“Of course. It’s nice to meet you, too. I…you…” You glanced down at Radia, who was beeping and whirring excitedly.

“I borrowed her. Hope you don’t mind. She’s a great companion.”

You knelt down, wrapping your arms around your old friend, resting your head against the cool metal of her panels. She had been painted a little, it seemed, but kept up well.

“Thank you. For taking care of her.” You told Laesynda, meeting her eyes, then Marc’s. “I thought I’d never see her again.”

“I’d never let anything happen to her.” Laesynda promised. “She carries all our memories with her. All of my memories of you. I could never part with those.”

“Well, now,” you smiled, “we get to make new ones.”

The X-Wings finally arrived, the people on the ground erupting into cheers. You locked eyes on Poe’s X-Wing, on BB-8 in his compartment in the back, wobbling as he looked around, took it all in. The top of the cockpit popped open and Poe began to climb out.

“I gotta go.”

“Go get him, Princess.” Laesynda encouraged, warmth in her eyes.

You took off, fluttering your wings before flying right over, past the celebrating Rebels, straight into Poe’s waiting arms, the force of it nearly enough to tackle him to the grass.

He laughed, spinning you around and around, peppering kisses all over your face before finally setting you in front of him, eyes softening as he took you in. His Jedi. His Princess. Alive and unharmed.

Your hand rose to his cheek, thumb smoothing over his skin, the other adjusting his curls, mussed up from his helmet.

“Hey.” He murmured.

“Hey yourself.” You replied, leaning up to press a tender kiss to his lips. He reciprocated immediately, hands securing themselves around your waist, tugging you closer to him as he deepened the kiss, tongue rolling into your mouth. You melted against him, breath hitching at his touch.

“Thought I lost you there for a second…” He confessed, nose brushing yours as he tucked a piece of hair behind your ear. “That lightning…I thought…I felt…”

“I know.” You nodded, kissing him again, featherlight. “But I’m okay. We all are.”

“I love you.” He said again, breaths ragged, holding you close, a hand cradling your head. “I love you so much, baby.”

“I love you, too.” You whispered, kissing his cheek, just in front of his ear. “My daring pilot.”

“Your trigger-happy flyboy.”

“Wouldn’t have him any other way.” You said, finally pulling away enough to let Rey and Finn into your circle. The four of you held each other, heads leaning together, arms around each other as you let the peace settle. The weight of the galaxy finally easing up off of your shoulders.

***

It only made sense that after a victory like that would come a party.

Poe mingled with just about every person on the base, congratulating people, shaking hands, flashing that prettyboy smile. He glanced back at you every handful of minutes, monitoring. You were sitting with Leia and Lando and Chewie, the last remaining members of your original group, enjoying the sounds of celebration.

“You were hungover for four days after the last war.” Leia recalled, laughing as she sipped from her glass.

“Oh I remember. Or…don’t remember. I guess that’s the whole point.” You chuckled. “Those little teddy bears knew how to party.”

Lando laughed at that. “So did you, Princess.”

“Alright, alright.” You chuckled. “I had a reputation for a reason.”

A few people came up to you, offering congratulations and well-wishes. You spoke with them, wishing them the best of luck, wherever they were headed.

Eventually, Poe wandered back to you, sitting on the log beside you. He took your hand in his, intertwining your fingers. Gently, he pulled your hand to his lips, kissing the back of it, the fire twinkling in his warm eyes.

“Can I talk to you about something? Alone?”

You smiled, following him away from the heat and noise of the party and out into the cool night air. Your clearing. Your meditating spot. It was…lit with strings of lights, glowing and warm. Someone had come out there and decorated it.

“What’s all this…?”

“Called in some favors.” Poe admitted, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I hope you don’t mind. I guess I should have asked first…”

“No, it’s…beautiful, Poe.” You reassured him, giving his hand a squeeze.

“I, uh…guess we’ve never really talked about what happens now. Between…us. What are your plans, now that it’s all over?”

“Plans?” You thought, eyes drifting over the lights. “Laesynda and I have discussed going back to Mariposas. Rebuilding. There are a lot of folks displaced from this war, I’d like to give them a place where they can be safe. Besides, I think Rey and I should probably start up a Jedi Temple. There are a few spots there that would be perfect for one. That’s…those are my plans. What are yours?”

“So, actually, about that…I was wondering if, uh…” He took a breath, those dark eyelashes fluttering shut, brows furrowing.

You waited, head tilting as he found his words. “If…?”

“It’s okay if you say no.” He prefaced, a hand out in warning, the other in his pocket.

“Can’t say no if you never ask, flyboy.”

Poe stared at you. He took a step closer, a hand settling on your hip, met your eyes… “I…was wondering if…you’d marry me, (Y/N).”

Your jaw dropped, heart pounding, searching his eyes for the edges of the joke, but…it wasn’t. It wasn’t a joke to him. He was serious.

His hand emerged from his pocket, his mother’s ring taken off the chain he’d worn it on for so long, pinched carefully between his fingers as he waited. After a long moment, he hesitated, eyes falling to the ground, doubt swirling. “It’s too soon, isn’t it? It’s okay, I just–”

“Poe.” You said, drawing his attention back to you, eyes watering. “You’d…you’d be a prince, you know. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that. Rebuilding a planet.”

“Yeah, well…my schedule just cleared up, so…” He said, still tense, but that humor of his starting to peek through again.

“You’re serious.”

“Never been more serious about anything in my life.”

You let out a shudder of a sigh, reaching forward and taking his face in your hands. Kissing him passionately, a hand buried in his curls, the other fondly caressing the scar on his cheekbone.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes, Poe Dameron. I…Yes.”

He took your hand in his, gingerly sliding the ring onto your finger, pretending to be surprised that it fit perfectly, like he hadn’t been putting it on you while you were sleeping. “Perfect fit.”

“Yeah, it is.” You nodded, pulling him by the collar of his shirt into another kiss, the ring gleaming on your finger under the warm lights. This time, he kissed back, hungrily, mouth devouring your own, hands firm on your tips, pulling you against him. You melted against his touch, letting a quiet moan into his mouth as his fingertips skimmed the smooth tissue of your wing.

He pulled away, resting his forehead against yours, breaths ragged, eyes searching your face. “I, uh…Bee showed me your video. When it was bad out there. The lightning…”

“Oh. Poe. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He thought I was gonna die, so…I just…you meant it, huh? You thought you wouldn’t…”

“Yeah.” You admitted. “Being a Jedi isn’t exactly a stable gig. Neither is being a pilot. Just wanted to…cover my bases.”

He nodded, hands on your waist, thumbs rubbing circles into your hipbones. “I do disagree with you on one thing.”

“Oh, do you?”

“Yeah. I…I’m never gonna fall in love again after you. You’re it for me. I’m gonna love you until the day I die. Ideally, with you by my side, but…”

You closed your eyes, smiling gently, a bittersweet kind of love settling over your soul. “I just want you to be happy.”

“And I will be. With you.” He tugged you closer, pressing a long kiss to your cheek. “I had him put a little something together for you, too. If you wanna watch it now, or…later?”

“Now works.”

BB-8 rolled out of the bushes, whirring in congratulations.

You laughed. “Thank you!”

He rolled back a little, leaning up to project a video above him. What unfolded was a series of memories.

Poe and the others arriving on Mariposas to get you, Poe turning the medallion over in his hand.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Finn wondered.

“It’ll work. She’s…waited long enough.” Poe knelt down, pressing the medallion into the compartment of the healing pod. “I didn’t expect her to be so…”

“Beautiful…” Rey murmured, nodding.

“And young…” Poe said, watching as the amulet began to glow, the glass of the pod retracting shakily. They all waited in bated breath for you to wake up.

Eventually, the projection of you opened her eyes and you watched how you’d met them all, tired and confused, mistaking them for your old friends. Little had you known then just how much they would all mean to you.

After, BB-8 played a medley of each of the moments he’d captured, borrowed from other droids. The two of you building your lightsaber, him touching your wings for the first time, the way you reunited after battles and missions, the way you flirted around eachother, dancing circles around each other until finally colliding that fateful night at the gala. The way you flew over the base to get to him when he was injured. All the loving touches and gazes that came after, playfully hiding your relationship from your colleagues. Your victory kiss.

A montage of your love, all laid out for you nicely.

Fireworks boomed in the distance, the rebels out by the base finally getting into supplies you wouldn’t need now that the war was over.

You curled against his chest, swaying in the night, beneath the glittering lights.

“I can’t wait to make a million more, baby.” He murmured, pressing his lips to your forehead. “I love you so goddamn much. Feels like it’s killing me sometimes.”

“I think that’s how it’s supposed to feel.” You kissed his cheek, then his lips. “I would know. I’ve loved you for a good, long time, Poe Dameron and…I’m gonna love you for the rest of my life.”

“Don’t you forget it.”

Epilogue

Months had passed. You had been boots on the ground on Mariposas, helping rebuild the tatters of your broken home. You started with the palace, a nice centralized building so everyone could be housed close together, but as more refugees arrived, you were sure you’d have the help you’d need to build the nearest village back up.

Rey and Finn had taken a journey to round up more Force Sensitives, the return of the Jedi, as it were. When they found them, everything would be ready. The Force would finally find balance again.

“Hey, baby, Laesynda found this in your father’s room. Said to bring it to you.” Poe said, stepping over some rubble on his way over to you, a small wooden box in his calloused hands. You weren’t married yet, still engaged and taking it one day at a time. There was a lot of work to be done before you’d feel settled enough for a wedding.

“Let me see…” You held it, brushing thirty years of dust from the lid before opening it slowly. Inside was one of your father’s rings. A gold band, a strip of purple gemstones through the center. On the inside was engraved a butterfly, the symbol of your people. “Oh…”

“It’s beautiful.” Poe said softly.

“It was Dad’s.” You confirmed, plucking it from its velvet casing. “Told her I was looking for it.”

“For what, your Highness?” He asked, voice featherlight as you took his hand, spreading his fingers.

“This.” You slid it onto his ring finger, searching his eyes. “I know we still have a lot to do before the wedding but…when all of the people get here, I…want them to know you’re mine.”

“Possessive little Princess, aren’t you? Don’t want your new subjects to get too carried away?”

“Not with my pilot.” You murmured, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Besides, it’s a Mariposan thing. I was supposed to propose to you, not the other way around.”

“See, I did know that, I just…couldn’t help myself.” He grinned, hand resting on your waist as he kissed you, the ring gleaming against his finger. “I’m a little impulsive.”

“I know.”

You heard a ship landing outside and rushed out with him to find the Millennium Falcon landing. Chewie emerged with Finn, Rey, and…Jannah? One of the defected Stormtroopers who had helped you all on the moon in the Endor system.

“Jannah! Hey!” You waved excitedly, rushing over to meet them, Poe following close behind.

“Your Highness…” She said, looking at you with a sparkle of insecurity in her eyes. “I’d be honored to train with you, if you’d have me.”

“Welcome aboard.” You replied, putting a hand on her arm, warmth in your eyes. “It’s not much yet, we’re still rebuilding, but, we’re getting there.”

“Day by day.” Finn said, smiling proudly. He was still wielding Luke’s green saber, and wielding it well.

In the months that had passed, however, Rey and Soren had crafted their own sabers. Rey’s was a dual blade. It made sense for her, with her experience with a staff, a brilliant yellow color. One you had never seen in a saber. Soren’s had taken on a lighter color, cyan, somewhere between green and blue. It suited him. Fresh, just like your nephew.

This left your legacy saber wielderless. You kept it with you, in case danger arose. Two sabers readily at your disposal, but…you had a feeling Jannah wouldn’t look so bad holding it. Maybe this was how it was meant to be. Time would tell.

The pieces hadn’t magically fallen into place the minute the war had ended. Nor had you expected them to. Healing took time, lots of it. But you had a growing family there. People you could count on. People looking for a home, for a leader. A leader you hoped they would find in Laesynda, in yourself. Your brother had shattered the kingdom at his feet, but together, you hoped, you would find a way to recover. A way to more forward. To heal the past as you marched towards the future.

“We’ll get there.” Poe said, confident. Sure of it. You loved that about him.

“We will. All of us. Together.”

In the distance, Soren and Ben trained, flitting from branch to branch of the healing Monarch Tree, the crowned jewel of your home planet.

And for the first time in thirty years, it was finally beginning to bloom.

THE END.

Tags: @cap-lu20

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron #poe dameron imagine #star wars #star wars imagine #star wars sequels #sequel trilogy #jedi!reader

34 notes · View notes

dimalink · 2 months

Text

Tria – Pseudo 3d space fighter

Tria – simple space shooter. Idea of the game – it is a simple space shooter. Pseudo three dimensional. And everything is made with black and white visual. With white lines space ships are drawn, stars and lasers. And black color of space. Also, game, of course, is made with impressions after a movie, that I saw recently, it is Star Wars Episode 6. From 80s. Retro sci fi theme.

There is even a whole text screen. With a story. Princess of Stars is against Dark Lord. New strike against Dark Lord. Hope plus one for galaxy about a positive future. Dark Lord has his crusader march over the galaxy. And you are a space ranger. With fast space ship TRIA. It is something like airplanes Mirage, F16, Mig 29. But in space.

In anything else, it is a space shooter. In compare with other my games in Basic Pascal – it is rather dynamical. But, it plays as easy game. Five game levels. And three types of weapons. Idea of the game - it is to make simple space shooter. It is a long time dream. It should to be thing like this for lots of developers. But according – the things, how they goes. I put everything in pseudo three dimensional view, and add a story. And there is some diversity. So absolutely simple space shooter – one more to be lately. Later. To be - simple for sure.

Game process has one moment. And you can not to pay attention to it. It is types of weapons. You have a whole three of them. It can be change using buttons 1,2,3. And game has 5 levels. And for every level you have your own pack of weapons. For example, for some level it can be a weapon 2 and 3. And it is not a random case.

Things is that, game has a three types of enemies. Fast enemy, which shoot with first types of weapon. Second enemy type - medium – shoots with second weapon type. Third enemy type – big – shoots with third weapon type. And enemy has always a 6 points of shields. And this shield can be easily broken through with 1 shot, if to shoot the right type of laser. You can see what type of enemy, enemy use. And to shoot with him the same type, it is like a tip.

So, this means, light enemy – it is first laser, medium - it is second laser, heavy enemy – it is third laser. Shooting like that, you will always destroy enemy with one shot. If to shoot with not right type of weapon. Then every shot will take 2 damage points. This means, to destroy enemy, you need whole three shots.

Such a game trick is for more interest and for some mystery. Such a space effect. Retro effect. As a some more points, I mark a schematical graphic decorations. With white lines. Just like it is retro computer. I do it on purpose. And little more – it is like pseudo three dimensional visual effect. All space ships reminds a triangles, as a view. In anything else – at the background it is a schematical space with stars.

Game has a simple control. To the left and to the right you move. And you cannot to go beyond the screen. You are stuck in a corner. And shoot - with space. Change weapons – buttons 1,2,3. Game exit with button Q.

Most interesting theme – it is space and flight in space with space ship. Which is looks like triangle. And something like retro computer schematical scene with fighter flight from Star Wars. Something like episode 4,5,6. Also a retro release of Star Wars, if to watch. Retro computers – also it is a theme. And as for me, I like a lot this idea, to make everything in several colors. For example, with 2 colors. With white and black background. And, it is one more thing, it is goes good for space.

You are space ranger. And you are in a patrol. You need to destroy enemy ships. And you have whole three lives. Each shot of enemy – takes one point of shield. You can do maneuvers to the left and to the right. And imagine you are a pilot of fighter from Star Wars. In something like 70s or 80s, maybe, it should to be as a super class theme. And, now, only a retro theme, theme of space shooter and a simple game.

Theme of sci fi, retro sci fi, retro future. As a retrowave, but in a form of a little game. It is written with programming language QB64. And, it is also good to go to show a theme of retro future. I like a lot to program with Basic.

Right now, game is almost complete. It is everything programmed. All intro, menu, game process, everything is already done. And, I can say game is complete. But, I need to check everything several times. And to make game menu a little more interesting. Right now, they are – as a few words on a screen. For example, Level 1. And that’s all. In a left corner it is written. At least, to put it in a center. I do not plan to make menus diversity. But, at least to move labels in a center. And, that’s all, game is done!

So, in fact, that game is already complete. Reason, that I do not put time into menu – it is a simple space shooter. And I spent time with drawing space ships. That’s why menus will be in a simple white text at the black background.

This game will be in the new version of pack Basic Pascal. It will be released – a new version of Basic Pascal – as soon as I collect several made games. For example, three new games will be done. And they will be in a new version of pack Basic Pascal. Tria – it is first new game for this new version Basic Pascal.

Basic Pascal pack - whole pack of games and programes, written with basic and pascal. It is retro. With each game and program there is a page at author`s website. There are aditional information, descriptions, pictures, arts.

Basic Pascal: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/packs/basicpascal/index_eng.html

Itchio: https://dimalink.itch.io/basic-pascal GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/BasicPascal/773385 Website: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html

7 notes · View notes

ser-rctslcyer · 6 months

Text

Pairing: Poe Dameron x GN! Reader Word Count: 2.3k Synopsis: Poe takes a much needed break during his mission, but he comes across his crush on an assignment on their own. Warnings: Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Crushes, Flirting, Banter, Developing Relationship, Poe Dameron is Bad at Feelings A/N: I’ve missed this flyboy very much and have been dying for some banter with him.

Poe rolled his neck, once and then twice again, sighing at every little pop until his shoulders felt a little less tight. Once he felt somewhat better, he hopped out of his ship and let out BB-8. He loved his X-Wing more than anything, but it was tiresome whenever he hit parts where he was just flying for nearly weeks on end. Thankfully he finally found somewhat of a safe planet to be on and he’d be damned if he didn’t give himself a moment to stretch out his legs before the next big push. His mission was greatly important after all and would change the fate of The Resistance.

For right now though, he needed a break.

Casually he walked through the inner city, keeping a pretty neutral expression as he looked around. It seemed the locals were all preparing for a festival of some sort as smiles and laughter could be heard from everyone. He looked for signs where he could get something to drink, lucking out as he rounded the corner to the sight of a bar. As he got to the bar table, he ordered something light; carefully observing his surroundings before enjoying himself. He had barely had a third of his drink when he caught sight of a familiar jacket passing by.

‘What are you doing out here?’ his brows furrowed as he tracked you until finally you were out of sight. BB-8 buzzed, a teasing tone, somehow knowing who he saw, and Poe rolled his eyes. He downed the rest of it as quickly as possible and paid, before bolting out the building. When he arrived at the spot, he peered around until he saw you again and a smile fluttered across his lips. By all means it wasn’t rare to run across another rebel during missions but in this case, it was a very welcomed surprise. He wouldn’t be half as happy as he was right now if it was not you; his crush. He straightened out his shirt, tugged at his jacket, and then cleared his throat. He approached cautiously, coming around the side so you’d catch him in your peripheral since your gaze was focused elsewhere.

“You know, I’m pretty sure you could’ve finished that fruit several bites ago,” he commented, and your eyes turned to him; filled with intent, they relaxed as you recognized him. “Unless you're preoccupied with something else?” he softly hinted, catching the stormtroopers you had been staring at as he looked back at you.

“If it isn’t you, Dameron. Isn’t this sector a little too far for you to be out here?” you raised your brow questioningly, taking an extra cheeky small bite with a grin. His heart hammered in his chest as he grinned back, turning to face you fully.

“Eh, you know how I am. I prefer the much more complex route to my assignments,” he shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest to keep himself from fidgeting with his jacket coat.

“Trust me, I’m pretty sure the entire resistance is aware of that,” you trailed off with a soft chuckle and Poe couldn’t help but beam. He always enjoyed the laughs he’d somehow manage to get out of you even though you were both on two different squads. He had been quite bothersome trying to get information out of others about you without sounding like a complete creep. The fact you knew something of him besides his rank, made his crush on you grow even bigger.

“So how’s your mission going?”

“Pretty easy for now, started with a bit of a blaster fight but I managed to smooth things out,” you finish the last of your food before leaning against the wall; your focus all the way on him. “How about you?”

“I haven’t gotten to see nearly as much action as you yet, it’s been pretty simple so far.” he sighed, trying to play it cool.

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it a little tougher for yourself,” you nudged him and Poe could’ve sworn his heart had skipped a beat.

“You flatter me,” he responded slyly, nudging you back which made you laugh again. Maker, if only he could hear that noise every day.

“As everyone does, I’m sure,” your eyes briefly leave his, as if you were somewhat saddened by your own words. It was silent, the noises from everyone else filling in the room between the both of you.

“This is just a pit stop,” he added quickly, looking back at you.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, don’t you know this place has some of the most beautiful fireworks you’ll ever see in this sector?” he gestured to all the decorations around you, the feeling of joy lay thick in the air between you both.

“No, I didn’t,” you glance around the street before looking back at him. “Though if you have a moment whenever you're done oogling fireworks, I could use your assistance?” you inquire with a little knowing looking.

“I’ve got time,” he tipped his head, gesturing for you to lead the way.

“So when you said you needed my assistance,” Poe kept his focus forward, adjusting his grip on his blaster before glancing back, “you meant you just need my droid?” He watched as BB-8’s scomp link sped up the process on your datapad, as you kneeled tapping away a different encryptions.

“Well yes, but also I do appreciate the extra bit of company,” you threw a wink back at him and Poe rolled his eyes, turning away before you could catch his idiotic grin. Right on time, his droid chimed in; jabbing at his feelings again by exposing how mopey he got when he went on long missions alone. “See even BB knows, it can be lonely traveling alone for missions.”

“And you appreciate having a lookout,” he added, waving his blast behind him for a moment before resuming position. Though he was being a bit snarky, he was going to make sure he did his part; the last thing he was going to have was you mad at him.

“C’mon, how could I turn down our best pilot for some help?” you argued, tapping a little faster before your pad began again. “You’ve got sharper eyes than most of us.”

“I’m perfect, I know,” he spoke confidently, turning around to wink at you.

��Damn right.” you cheered quietly and Poe felt his cheeks heat up. He shook his head of thoughts, keeping a careful eye for any movement or noise. It wasn't too long before he heard a familiar mechanical click from his droid.

“Got it,” he turned just in time to see you giving a thumbs-up to his droid which BB reciprocated, rolling in a little happy circle of his own. He gave a once over to the rest of the building, catching sight of no one close before he went to look what your prize.

“And what exactly do you have?”

“Plans, list, everything the First Order has right now, that they’ve been using to keep tabs on in this sector.”

“Shit.”

“You tell me,” you smile widely, and Poe wished he could’ve bent down and kissed you there. He watched as you pulled out a different tablet and began transferring data.

“You’re gonna put it back?”

“Once this is all copied, I’m going to upload this,” you wave the other drive you had in your satchel. “It’s a simple little virus, so any copies they will try to make will seem like nothing more than a hardware crash.”

“Look at you, The Resistance’s best hacker,” he commended, watching you look away with a smile. Just like you said, the copied load and then you put in your virus, both swift and it was easy to put back in place. You both made sure everything was secure and put back into place so that no suspicion would be drawn. He made sure to watch your back as you led him through your exit strategy until it came time to leave the premises, that’s when you stopped.

“Maker, there’s more stormtroopers than before,” you groaned, crouching lower to make sure you wouldn’t be caught as you observed your surroundings.

“Probably the festival goers pushed them all back in,” he added and you let out a disgruntled sigh. The two of you looked for some sort of opening when his eyes caught something and he nudged you.

“I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Follow me,” he slowly made his way to the opposite side of the platform, ducking behind crates and other such things. He stopped at the edge, perfectly hidden behind a stack of barrels before climbing upward and pulling down some of the stray decorations that dangled close by. When climbed back down he could see the confusion in your eyes as he handed you a bundle of streamers, lights, and other such decorations

“Throw’em over you,” he began putting some over himself and then over BB while you stood there in shock.

“Poe?”

“You just have to trust me, sweetheart,” he put his hand on your shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before you started putting the decorations on yourself. He helped you, putting your satchel in front of you and draping stuff over it to make it inconspicuous. Both of your eyes meet once he finishes, staring deeply at one another until he grabbed your hand.

“Just follow my lead.”

“Poe–” you’re cut off as he rushes the two of you out into the open. He begins to laugh and chuckle, talking with you about the festival as the two of you rush toward the rambunctious crowd in the streets. Obeying his order, you mimic him, laughing and chuckling as you get to the crowd and assimilate in. You can hear the troopers behind you berate you both but no shouting in attempts to question you; they must’ve assumed you both and the droid were celebrating a little too hard.

Even though you are both far out of earshot, Poe keeps a good grip on your hand; leading you through the alleyways until you both end up on the main road. As he gently pushed through the crowd he came to stop once you reached the middle, BB keeping close to your leg. Before you can question him, a loud whistle flies high into the sky, and as you look up, bright colorful lights explode over you. The crowd cheers and celebrates as you stare in awe before looking back at him.

“See, I told you this planet had the most beautiful fireworks,” he whispered, squeezing your hand as he looked at you softly. The beautiful flashy lights reflect off of his eyes and you can’t help but think he is perfect just like this. You can barely remember you need to respond when Poe’s eyes grow with worry before his hand begins to pull away.

“Sorry, I can get a little too excited sometimes,” he chuckled, awkwardly looking away.

“No, no, it’s alright,” on instinct you grab his hand again, giving it a squeeze of your own this time. His nervousness seemed to still the moment he looked back at you, and the two of you stood there with locked eyes.

Everything else faded around both of you, your attention purely on one another. The two of you stepped closer without even realizing it until you were only a breath away. Poe, being who he was, closed the gap; softly sealing his lips yours. You melted against him, a sign of relief leaving you at the feeling of his tongue; a kiss so tender yet wanting. His warm hands roam over your sides, kneading and grazing over your hips. Even with your eyes shut you could see the fireworks popping over the both of you for what felt like an eternity until a familiar beeping caught you off guard.

“What?” you asked in a daze, worried something was wrong. It wasn’t until the droid repeated that you let out a snort followed by laughter while Poe rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Thank you BB, I’m sorry you're scarred for life,” he groaned, gesturing to the droid to look away; BB listened, begrudgingly beeping angrily.

“What a romantic you are, huh?” you pant quietly, twiddling your fingers over the curls at the base of his neck, which gets his attention. Kissing me while fireworks are going off.”

“I’m sorry, baby; I couldn’t help myself,” he grinned licking over his own lips before stealing another kiss.

Humming, you throw your arms over him deepening the kiss which seems to make him happy. Poe’s hands land on your hips and pull you closer. Quiet noises left the both of you, from every little nip, lick, or suckle and neither of you seemed to get enough. Both of you seem determined to fill in for the lost time you spent only gazing at one another secretly. Things were heating up until you both heard the incessant beeping which made you pull away. Poe was about to look down at BB when he realized it was coming from him. He fumbled through his pocket for a second before finding his pager which was making the noise and flashing; his mission was back in progress– he frowned.

“I think I’m out of time,” he let out a meek chuckle, pressing his forehead against yours.

“It’s fine,” you cup his face, trying to pull him ever closer; your lips brushing softly over each other. “We can always pick this back up later when we're both at base.”

“I like the sound of that,” he smiled, rubbing his nose against yours as he closed his eyes for a second.

“Figured you would, flyboy,” you tease, kissing the tip of his nose. The two of you stare at each other a moment more before pulling away; Poe holding both one of your hands gently.

“Stay safe, Poe,” you squeeze it and he does the same.

“You too.”

The two of you finally pull away before going your separate ways, thinking of the million different things you’d say to each other the next time you were home.

#rct fic #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x gn! reader #poe dameron fic #star wars fic

77 notes · View notes

madameminor · 1 year

Text

In More Ways Than One, Part 9 - Bad Batch x F!Reader - Wrecked

Summary: Everything seems perfect the morning after - until Wrecker starts acting strange.

Tags: 18+ smutty mcsmutterson, porn with plot, basically, all the good stuff

Warnings: Dom drop, aftercare, breeding kink, shiny's being jerks.

Notes: I'm experimenting writing more with less, since sometimes I get too caught up in the words - I may or may not like it. Regardless, please enjoy Wrecker being a sweet boy.

Word Count: 5k+

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 3.5 Part 4 Part 4.5 Part 5 Part 5.5 Part 6 Part 6.5 Part 7 Part 8 Part 8.5 Part 9 Part 9.5 Part 10

The bliss of a truly rested sleep is really second to none. Waking slowly from the comforting embrace of peace, you feel the necessary rest down to your soul.

That is - until you shift to stretch - and feel the full effects of yesterdays ‘punishments’.

Your stretching squeal becomes a mournful moan as you ache in places you’ve never ached before - and are met with a soft chuckle and a gentle hand on your cheek.

“Mmhmm. The lesson continues,” Crosshair smirks, kissing your nose from where he stands by his bed. You squint open your eyes and pout at him before turning your back to him, showing your disdain for his teasing. He chuckles again and gently spanks you, making you turn to pout at him again as he scoots in behind you.

“Don’t be like that. It’s your own fault anyway,” he murmurs into your neck, kissing gently as his hand gently rubs over your hip, your thigh.

“Hmph,” you pout away from him, too sleepy to think of a comeback.

He lightly nips along where Hunter bit you the night before, making you gasp at the light pull of memory.

“Nnnn Crosshair, don’t get me going this early I’m so SORE.”

He smirks in your ear. “You want to stay here then?”

“Mmhmm…”

“Hmph, alright. We’re going to the mess for whatever serves as breakfast out here. You want us to bring you back something?”

“Mmhmm,” you nod in affirmation, eyes still closed, voice sleepy. “Y’s please.”

Another chuckle by your ear. “Its a good thing you’re cute.”

“M’super cute.”

“You are. We’ll be back.”

The rest is like hazy background noise as you drift in the peaceful stream of ‘sleepy’.

“So she is staying?” Tech, quietly.

“Mmhmm.” The sound of a toothpick between teeth.

“Hmph. Can’t say I’m surprised.” Hunter, smirking. Various armors being put on. Echo’s chuckle, the sound of blasters finding holsters, its all starting to fade as you slip back into-

“Wrecker.”

Hunter’s voice is just above a whisper.

“Hey Wrecker,” a little louder, trying not to disturb you, but obviously working to get attention. “Come on, we’re headed to the mess. Grub time.”

You don’t hear any movement, just a voice, facing towards a wall - just above a whisper, and very, very guilty.

“U-uh you guys go ahead, I-I’m not really hungry.”

Everything stops.

You’re up and by his bed before you know you’ve thought about it, pulling his shoulder towards you to make him look up, the scanner you whisked from your pack blinking readings as you draw it down his face.

He freezes like a porg in headlights as you finish your scan. You set it down in confusion, hand to his forehead.

Hunter is just over your shoulder.

“What’s wrong with him?”

You scan again for anything, anything. “His vitals are fine. There’s no fever.”

“None of the side effects from the inoculations mentioned lack of appetite?” Tech muses quietly.

“Even if it did, Wrecker always has an appetite. He defies the odds,” Echo says firmly.

A small spark of worry in your chest has you on your feet. “I’ll take him to the infirmary and do some more tests to see if it’s anything -”

A hand grabs your wrist as you turn to get dressed. You look to where Wrecker waits, his eyes panicked instead of surprised.

“NO, no, I’m fine, really. Just… just not hungry, ok? I don’t need to… uh, go with them to the mess.” He looks down and away from his brothers.

Oh.

You almost kick yourself.

OH.

You turn to the others, “Alright my dears, I’ll take it from here. Out.” You shoo them towards the door, ignoring the fact that you’re giving orders while completely naked.

Hunter raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure-”

“BIP bip bip bip, go. Out. Bring back food for two, please. Don’t hurry back.”

The door whisks closed so fast it almost catches Echo’s kama.

You turn back to Wrecker, sitting on the bed beside him. “They’ve gone, honey.”

He looks over at you, briefly meeting your eyes before looking off to the side- he opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. His eyes meet yours again, pleading for help with whatever he needs to say. Your heart melts a bit for him - your gentle giant, in unknown territory. You scoot closer to him, putting your head to his, your hand on his cheek.

“I’m right here, I’m listening. Take your time.”

He sighs in relief, closing his eyes and breathing with you. He wraps his arms around you and rolls onto his side, pulling you over him so you’re the closest to the bulk head. He buries his face in your neck - aw, he’s hiding. You stroke his bald head to soothe him, letting him find the words he needs.

You don’t have to wait long. “Are you….ok?”

Something in his tone sets off your mental alarm bells.

“I’m wonderful. A little sore, but its a good sore. Why, honey?”

“I didn’t… hurt you, right? You aren’t… mad at me?”

…shit.

“Oh darling, no,” you say, fully turning to face him, your hand cupping his face. He leans into it, still avoiding your eyes. “No no no. I’m so grateful to you. I loved last night. I feel so lucky that all of you gave to me like that. I’m the happiest woman alive this morning.”

He finally looks up at you, still looking guilty. “Really?”

“Yes yes yes, a thousand times yes,” you say quietly, smiling. “All the things we did last night were things I’d talked to Crosshair and Hunter about enjoying - I may have seemed like I was upset, but it's what I wanted.”

“So I’m… I’m not a bad person for liking it?”

“No,” you say firmly, still staying quiet so it doesn’t sound like a reprimand. “I like those things being done to me. And you can like doing those things to me because I’m saying yes. If you liked those things and I was screaming my safe word, that would not be ok, but that’s what a safe word is for - to tell you when I’m not ok.”

“I… w’ll, I know that. But I still feel like what I did was wrong. I don’t understand, I liked it at the time, but… I started thinking about it, and now…Whats wrong with me?”

“Nothing, babe, nothing at all. This happens sometimes, and it means you care about me, and you would never hurt me if I asked you to stop. This proves you’re a good person, not a bad one. This happens, a lot of people in your position can feel like this after they do some of what we did last night. It even has a name. It’s called ‘dom drop’.”

“It… it is?” Understanding and relief start to show on his face. You start to breathe again.

“Mmhmm.”

He’s relaxing, slowly, but steadily. “Did the others feel like this?”

You trace along his face scar. “I don’t know. They may have at some point, either last night or before, but if this isn’t their first time they probably have ways to care for themselves.” He nods, thinking. You stroke the side of his face, being sure to meet his eyes. “Babe, I’m sorry. There are things to watch out for, and I didn’t think of you in the moment at all. It was your first time, I should have checked in with you. I’m so sorry, and I’ll work to communicate with you so much more, starting right now.”

He looks at you, still hesitant, but nods before burying his head into your shoulder again.

You mentally kick yourself, feeling the gravity of your responsibility settle on you - this is the second time you left him in the dust. If you were going to make this work with all five of them, you needed to up your game - to make sure you took care of those who needed you at those junctures. And Wrecker needed you to pay more attention to guiding him - he was new to all of this.

No use beating yourself up. You didn’t know who would need what before, but now you do.

Time to make it right.

You kiss his head, willing his worries away. “What do you need right now, darling? Snuggles? Kisses? Closeness?” He nods, snuggling closer. You smile, settling into the security of his strength around you.

The silence is peaceful. You feel him breathing, heart slowing. You stroke his head, trailing kisses every few strokes. You feel him relax against you, tension releasing… but there’s still a sadness. Something isn’t quite right yet. You let your mind wander over what past lovers have liked, have asked for in their care.

“Do you want to hear about what I liked last night?”

He looks up again in surprise - and nods. Good.

You smile, settling into him and the pillow while thinking back. “Hmm…I liked having you in my mouth while the other two were inside me.” He grins.

You continue. “I liked when you spanked me - it felt so good to have you so big in me and spanking me at the same time. I want to do that again, if you do.” His eyes spark in interest, and you can feel something near your pelvis firm.

Heeheehee.

“I like hearing you lose yourself and go hard with me - using me to cum like that. I liked how you didn’t let me cum, but you really wanted to. I always love feeling you cum inside of me, and what you said about wanting to push so far inside of me was SO hot.”

He gets bashful again. Interesting. “Yeah?”

You prop yourself up on one elbow, fingers tracing along his shoulders. “What did you like about last night?”

He swallows. “How hot you looked tied up like that. It was really… kriffing hot.”

You giggle in response. He smiles.

“When you choked on me because Echo fucked you so hard. That felt so good.”

“Oooo, I remember that. The look on your face was very attractive.”

He smiles. “I’m glad the boys made me wait, cause I really wanted to feel you cum, but then watching you cum so hard was really hot.”

He pauses, then glances away while finding the words, rubbing the back of his neck.

“A-Also, uh… there was…uh… there was a moment where I thought something kind of weird, but it was really hot to think about?”

“OOooo, tell me,” you smile, shifting closer.

He keeps rubbing the back of his head. “It…um…”

He’s so kriffing cute. “I’m listening, darling, I want to hear about all the things that you like.”

He swallows, still not meeting your eyes. “I uh… I wanted to cum so hard in you that you… got pregnant.”

Your core tenses in excitement. Oh, say it isn’t so. “Oh really?”

“Y-yeah…” he looks back at you, words suddenly spilling out in a rush. “I’d never do that, I know you have, like, that thing that stops you from having babies, but the thought just popped into my head and it was really hot at the time and-”

Ooooh the Gods are good. “I think so, too.”

He blinks. “You do? It’s not weird?”

Your smile is coy. “No, it's something a fair amount of people like. Including me, at times.”

He gulps again - you feel the firm grow firmer. His voice sounds mildly strained. “But you can’t have babies right now.”

“That’s true,” you flirt, a finger tracing along his collar bone, “but we can pretend. You can fill me up so full and imagine what I look like when I have your baby growing in me. A cute little wrecking ball.”

Firmer still. You can feel his heart thumping in his chest. “Babe… thats…”

You smile, leaning in closer to him. “Do you want to try now? Want to try and cum in me so hard that you get me pregnant?”

He reflexively grips your hips, where his hand rests, bucking involuntarily. “Kriff yeah…"

His fingers trail down, pulling your leg up over his hip before moving behind your leg to trace over your slit, groaning as his fingers come away wet and sticky.

“Babe…”

Your breath catches at the need in his eyes. “See how much I like the idea?”

He groans again, bucking up, fingers eagerly returning to push inside your entrance.

You wince at the sudden intrusion. “Gently, love, You all worked me over really well last night.”

He lightens up immediately. He slides one finger inside your slippery slit, thick and firm, curling against your walls, stroking your g-spot delicately. You clench around him, savoring the feeling of his loving care in your pleasure. He groans as he pulls his finger out again.

“FUCK babe… I’m sliding in so easily.” He pumps again, watching your face fastidiously. “Can you… take another?”

“Yes, oh yes.” Your hips buck, begging for more of him inside of you, thoughts running through your head of what you’re about to do. You start to ride his fingers while he moves inside you, meeting each other with each thrust. You hold behind his neck for support, eyes meeting his, begging him not to stop.

That sets something off in him, moving forward to latch his mouth onto where neck meets shoulder. “Kriff, that’s right mesh’la, ride my fingers. Want you so ready to take my cock. You want it so bad, don’t you?”

You whimper out a cry, riding his fingers as he pumps them into you. “Can’t wait to feel you fill me…”

He involuntarily bucks against your leg. “Fuck I’m going to cum so far into you. Can’t wait to fill you up till you’re leaking, make sure it takes.”

Fuck it’s so hot to hear him say that. “O-One more, Wrecker, I c-can take another.”

He slides in a third finger, finally giving you the same girth as he is, sliding himself down to suck pulses into your clit.

“WRECker…” Your eyes fall back into your head, your head falls back between your propped arms, and you fuck along him for all your worth, riding the wave of the pleasure cresting from his pulses.

“Oh babe I’m cumming, I’m cumming, I’m cumming!”

“That’s right babe, cum for me, cum for me real good.”

You feel yourself start to seize, riding his tongue as he pushes you through, eagerly licking up everything you’re releasing like its frickin’ candy.

You’re left panting - but still craving him. You whine a bit, bucking as he pulls his fingers away. You want so much more. You want what he said he’d give you.

Wrecker starts running your slick on his fingers over his hard length, already weeping precum. He bites back a groan, looking down at you with need, with… worry? Aww, the darling is checking in. Your heart swells.

“Babe, can I…”

You reach up to cup his cheek.“Yes, please yes. But kiss me when you push in? I’m afraid I’ll moan too loud…”

He kisses you deeply, sliding in so gently, both of you swallowing the other’s groans. HIs head falls to your chest as he breathes through the moment.

“So kriffing tight. Fuck, you’re squeezing me so tight.”

“It's cause I want your cum, babe. I want it so bad.”

He groans, hips stuttering into yours, making you gasp, eyes rolling back.

“Can’t wait to give it to you,” he says, slowly starting to fuck into you. He puts his head to yours, one hand coming up to cup the side of your face. “Fill you up so good with my cum. Want to get you so big for me, kiss your belly, talk to our strong baby while you bounce on my cock. Tell them how beautiful their mom is.”

“Oh Wrecker…”Your voice comes out a moan, unable to think around his giant cock fucking into you.

His head falls to your shoulder, hips moving faster. “NNNnn I’m gonna cum, mesh’la. You ready for me? You ready for me to fill you up?”

You can barely form a thought, but the words just flow out of you. “Yes Wrecker, please. Please. Pump your cum inside me, honey, I want it so bad.”

He grips under your shoulder, holds your thigh against his hip, driving his full length inside your throbbing hole. “KRIFF. Take it then. Take it all. Nnn... NNN.”

He growls a groan as his hips stutter, releasing his seed what seems like an unnatural amount of times deep inside you, using his leverage to push in as far as he can.

He doesn’t stop, even as you feel him start to soften.

He groans. “Fuck, babe. FUCK. I want to keep going so bad, I don’t want to stop I’m still so horny.”

You’re so on fire with need that you don’t skip a beat.“Then come here, big boy, and let me help you with that.”

He moves up the bed, offering you his slowly softening cock. Karking hell, you’re so hungry and desperate for more, you immediately take him as far as you can with one swift move. He cries out a swear - he’s so sensitive, but he wants it so bad, SO BAD. He fucks your mouth gently, watching his cock disappear down your throat.

“Fuck, babe. That’s it. Just like that, getting me so hard again. I wanna fill you up more. So much more. Gonna make you cum this time too, so you strangle all my cum out of my cock, fill you up so good.”

You look up at him, watching him take you in, his eyes transfixed where your lips wrap around his cock.

“NNnnn could cum down your throat, fill you up from both ends,” he murmurs, almost to himself. You moan around him at the thought, making his hips stutter with a groan. “You’d like that, huh?”

You purposefully moan a yes, smirking internally as his eyes roll back.

“B-But I wanna make you cum too, feel you cum around my cock. Kriff, fuck I need to feel you cum on my cock.” He pulls out and away, clamping around the base for a moment while he breathes. As you sit up, wiping spit from your mouth, he picks you up and places you so your head is towards the other end of the bed, hooking your legs up with his elbows. He pushes into you hungrily, ravenous to feel you around him again, moaning along with your feverish cry. He starts to slowly fuck into you.

“WRECKer! Oh honey you feel so good.” You bring your hand down to play with your clit. “Wanna cum. Wanna cum while you’re fucking a baby into me.”

His hips speed up, spurred on by your rapturous cries. “That’s right mesh’la. Kriff. Milk me dry. Gonna be so full I put TWO babies in there. Gonna see you get so big. So big cause of me…”

Stars, you can FEEL how aroused he is, he’s so hard, so needy in his thrusts. “I’m so close, Wrecker, I’m so close. Fill me up while I cum for you. Give it to me, please.”

“Whatever you want, babe, anything you want.” His voice is desperate, his eyes feverish with need and arousal. “Fuck I’m gonna cum again. Take it all. Cum for me while you take it all. Kriff, kriff, KRIFF.”

You swear he pushes in so far he’s in your cervix. You feel each spurt of his spend coat your walls, fill your womb, leaving you sated and full, wishing, on some level, that this was real.

Wrecker falls to one elbow, panting, still propping himself up so as not to crush you, still shivering every few seconds as his orgasm racks him anew.

“B…Babe… that was… that was so…”

You put your head to his, your hand to his cheek, panting from the intensity of your orgasm. You feel your breath slow, leaning in and kissing him slowly, sensually, bringing him down on top of you. Your hands rove over his bald head, feeling the smooth skin under your fingertips. You pull back after a moment, laying back to look up at him while your fingers continue along his scar.

“Good?”

“Yeah,” He sighs in relief, head dropping to your shoulder as you giggle. “I’m gonna pull out, ok?”

“Ok.” You gasp a little as he gently pulls out, leaving you emptier than you were - but not by much. He turns towards the bathroom, presumably to get a towel - you gently grab his hand before he can.

“Wait. Don’t you want to see how full I am first?” You can’t help the mischievous smile dancing across your face.

He looks back at you, confused.

“Look,” you smile, laying back along the sheets, spreading your legs, hand trailing down to your lower lips - and parting them.

His widening eyes tell you he’s watching his seed brimming at your entrance, slowly trickling out of you. You clench, partly to emphasize the flow, partly because its so hot, watching him watch you like this.

He gulps, eyes glued to your pussy. “Babe, can I… do somethin’?”

“Yes,” you lilt, pulling your fingers away from your entrance.

He slides his thumb carefully over your slit, gathering some of the slick between your thighs. Eyes alight, he leans over you - and holds his thumb up to your lips.

You smile at him, propping yourself up on your elbows, and without taking your eyes from his, you take his thumb into your mouth, tasting your combined juices, sucking him clean.

“You’re gonna get me hard again,” he groans, almost reluctantly.

You release his thumb with a smile.

“Good,” you purr, nuzzling against his hand, “because I think you promised to cum down my throat next? ‘Fill me up from both sides’?”

You see the shiver run through him.

“Kriff, babe. You’re gonna be the death of me,” he groans - right before climbing back on to his bed.

__________________________________________________________________________

A half hour later finds Wrecker between your thighs with a damp cloth, cleaning up the substantial mess he’s made after cumming twice more. He can’t bring himself to look, he really shouldn’t look, he’ll just get going again - and hes not sure he could take another round before his brothers come back, and they’d been nice enough to leave them alone this long. There would be - he shivers - more chances another time.

Besides, he wanted to hold you after that.

Throwing the rag toward the end of his bed, he finds you snuggling extra close into his chest, filling him with warmth as he wraps his arms around you. Yeah, this was what he wanted.

“Mmmmm… that was everything.” You look up at him. “How are you, babe? How did you like that?”

“Great,” he grins - before his face falls into uncertainty. “Though I, uh, didn’t expect that to happen, you know…”

“I know, but I just loved the idea soooo much…” you nuzzle against his nose, his grin returning. Kriff, you made him feel like a cadet again, getting his first detonator. “Did that feel like what you needed?”

“Uh…” he thinks for a moment, trying to remember where he started. “Yeah… I think I… I just wanted to know you weren’t mad, or hurt or… somethin’ else. I liked feeling… like feeling close to you.” He (very) lightly squeezes you. “I like this.”

“Then lets do this if we try something intense like we did last night. I’ll make sure to come be close to you, and tell you how happy I am. Yes?”

He kisses the top of your head, feeling a knot unclench in his chest. “Yeah. I like the sound of that.”

He’s silent for a moment, taking it all in, thinking about last night, this morning, just now… comparing it to every other moment of comfort in his life. Were there any?

He looks down to where you’re snuggled against him. “Babe?”

He can feel your answering hum through his chest. “Hm?”

“Thanks… for taking care of me.”

You look up at him with those beautiful eyes and beautiful smile, the greatest gifts of all.

“Of course, honey,” you say quietly, kissing his chin. “It’s my pleasure.”

________________________________________________________________________

“Do you ever think about it? Having kids?”

The question seemed to come out of nowhere - you had spent the time waiting for the squad cuddling and talking about what other things you wanted to try together or with the others, making sure to listen for his wants and needs. A comfortable silence followed, each of you breathing in the other, until…

“Sometimes. Not a lot, since there’s no call for it right now, but I’ve thought about it.” You look up at him. “Why? Have you?”

“W’ll. Not, uh… not til now. But I… I really liked the idea of having a kid with you.” He won’t meet your eyes, he’s so bashful. Such a sweetheart. “Never thought of anything other than hanging with my brothers, but the thought was kinda… I dunno, nice.”

You smile up at him and kiss his nose, about to answer - and are suddenly overtaken by a huge yawn, your body relaxing into the warmth surrounding you.

He grins. “Tired, huh?”

You grimace in embarrassment as you finish your yawn. “Mmm… yes. You aren’t?”

“Naw, too hungry. You go ahead and sleep, mesh’la.” He strokes your head and kisses your crown. “I’ll take care of you.”

You can’t help but smile into his chest, enjoying the warmth blooming in yours, letting your heavy eyelids close. “Wrecker…”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really happy.” You breathe him in and sigh out relief.

His hands pause midstroke, but his body stays relaxed.

“... me too, babe.” You can hear the beaming smile in his voice. “I’m really happy too.” He continues his stroking, gentle fingers lulling you to sleep…

-until the door slides open.

“Are you two done?”

Crosshair’s slithery voice is as sardonic as ever. You smirk, your eyes staying closed.

You feel a shift next to you as Wrecker twists to whisper over his shoulder. “Shhhh - yup. Feelin’ much better.”

“Good.” Tech’s voice is, of course, matter of fact, even while quiet. “We have brought food. There is a fair amount-”

“AlRIGHT.” Wrecker whispers in joy, jumps up out of bed, doubles back to pull the blankets over you and kiss you on the head, making you giggle, then heads to the table. “I’m STARVING!”

Hunter’s whisper is sharp. “You di’kut, put on some clothes before you eat.”

You slip off into sleep with a smile, listening to your boys doing what they do best, your heart full of gratitude for every single one.

Yours to care for, as long as you have them.

__________________________________________________________________________

Earlier - The Mess Hall

“So where’s your medic?”

The four batchers look to the end of their table - where two clones with freshly painted armor stand, sneering.

Tech adjusts his goggles, looking them up and down. “Tending to one of our teammates. He was not feeling well this morning, potentially due to our inoculations yesterday.”

“Why does it matter?” Crosshair’s hiss is sharp, but not quite dangerous. Yet.

The two smirk at each other before looking back to them.

“Does she happen to be doing that on her back?” asks the one on the left with a mean grin.

All of their heads whip around, Crosshair, Tech, and Hunter tensed. Hunter’s eyes flash in warning. “Care to say that again, trooper?”

The left chuckles. “I think you heard me.”

The right elbows the left, indicating the group with his head. “Probably is. Probably needs it, if she was sniffing around our boys yesterday.” He looks back to the seething squad. “What's the matter? Your squad can’t keep one woman satisfied?”

“That’s enough.”

Echo stands where he is, staring down the other two. In this moment, the others can see his power shine through - this man was an ARC trooper, decorated for his many exemplary missions, a survivor from behind enemy lines, and back out in the field for brothers and Republic.

And he was irritated.

“I don’t know why you weren’t taught any manners back on Kamino. Maybe you were too distracted by your own insecurities that day.”

The two clones stiffen, slowly bristling- but Echo isn’t done.

“It doesn’t kriffing matter what she does in her private life,” he continues, eyes daring them to interrupt him. “What matters is she’s a trooper, like all of us. She puts her life on the line; fights the same battles we do, without enhanced abilities. She shows up, she works hard, and she cares for a bunch of clones like us, treats us like people,” He punches the table for emphasis, making the regs jump into a defensive stance, “so what else do you really need to know about her?”

The two regs stand, stunned, glancing at each other to think of a comeback- but there isn’t one.

“We all care about her as a member of our squad- so if you’re here to cause her trouble, then we have a problem. Now.” Echo leans forward, hand on the table, his voice getting very low. “Is there something else you would like to say to us, vode?”

“Oh I think they’ve said enough.” Squad and regs turn to see Captain Case, helmet on, arms crossed. The two reg troopers jump to attention.

“Mel. Felbourn. Not really showing our battalion in the best light, are ya? I think you owe their medic an apology.” His voice sounds dangerous through the vocoder. “After you finish scrubbing all the public freshers on the ship. Top. To. Bottom.”

“Sir yes sir!” The regs say in unison, stiff as boards.

“Dismissed,” the Captain waves, the two clones hurrying off and away with nary a mumble.

Hunter sits back at the table, turning to face Case. He looks over the Captain with a suspicious gratitude. “You didn’t need to do that.”

They can hear the Captain’s smirk. “I did, actually. They’re my men- and if no one has ‘taught them manners’, well, I’d better start now.”

He takes off his helmet and tucks it under his arm, shaking out his hair a little. “So, did I hear your medic isn’t feeling well?”

“No,” Tech corrects, of course. “Our demolition’s expert was not feeling well, so naturally our medic stayed behind to monitor any potential complications.”

Captain Case winces. “Ah, sorry to hear that. Though I’m not surprised, those inoculations are still new enough. Never know the side effects-”

“Why did you step in?” Crosshair interrupts, voice low and suspicious, glaring over at the reg Captain. “If you’re expecting to get to her through us, you’re wrong.”

Case blinks a few times, then chuckles. “Is that what you think that was?” He shakes his head, saying almost to himself. “You’ve all been hanging around the wrong vode.”

He looks back up at them, meeting all of their eyes. “Rex and Cody speak highly of you boys, and they don’t do that lightly. Anyone who has earned their respect… well, is definitely worthy of mine.”

He turns to leave. “I’ll leave you to your breakfast. Just know…” he flashes a cheeky grin at them, making eye contact with Hunter. “A girl like that? Make sure to take good care of her.”

Hunter smirks. He supposes he likes this reg after all.

“You can count on it.”

------------------------------------------------------------------

What up tag list?

If you asked to be tagged, and you don't see yourself, you may have changed your username and I don't have the new one. Please let me know if that's the case!

@ladykatakuri @ben-is-a-hoe @klay97 @kaitou2417 @dumfanting @kuromisheart @koifish08 @echo-is-worth-more-than-2000 @badbatch-simp24 @pointy-sharp @rainytears2 @gabile18 @nedxwynert @chopper-witch @nexxxxxxxxx @nightscissor @corona-one @babypandasugar22 @pumpkinkpatch @oohyesplease @princessclaire2 @just-a-shit-ton-of-trama @badbatch-simp24 @foreverhockeytrash @unholy-t-rin-ity @reeny26 @smurderous @xxeiraxx @discarded-beskar @just-an-anxious-ball-of-flesh @mybigfatspoonielife @whore4rex @andyoufollowyourheart @lokigirlszendaya @captain-splock-you @darkangel4121

@gluwu @stormweather99 @redpool @mysanityleaving @alwayssnivellus @chickentenderx @scioness-7 @moniicarlo @nekotaetae @cjoftheriver @ladykagewaki @charlie-boo @blueink-bluesoul @vithepotato @aconstructofamind

#the bad batch #the bad batch x reader #the bad batch x you #madame writes #wrecker x reader #wrecker x you #in more ways than one #clone force 99 smut #clone force 99 x reader

170 notes · View notes