12 | GIRL CRUSH

"Chewie..." Celestia's voice cracked as she witnessed the ship blow up into flames.

"We gotta go...we gotta go!" Poe's eyes widened as he frantically jumped up from his seat to shout for his remaining friends to return to the ship.

Celestia sat there, frozen at what had just happened. She had just witnessed a friend, a comrade, and a warrior die in flames. She couldn't believe it. It had happened so fast.

* * *

"I lost control." Rey breathed out, staring down at the palm of her hand. She didn't think she had that much raw power in her. Yet, she did.

"It's not your fault." Celestia consoled her. It truly wasn't. In fact, she was trying to save Chewie from becoming a prisoner of the First Order. And Kylo Ren had to intervene.

"It was."

"No--" Finn began.

"Chewie's gone. That power came from me."  Rey retorted. She only wanted to blame herself. Celestia could understand that. She could only see her actions as being the cause of his death. And she was angry with herself.

Celestia allowed Finn to take over the therapy session while she walked over to Poe, who was, too, grieving over Chewie.

* * *

"We only got eight hours left, what do we do?" Poe asked the team for a plan.

"What can we do? We gotta go back to base." Finn shrugged.

"Empty-handed? That's not how we roll here. Leia needs us. The resistance needs us to find that wayfinder. Listen, if we can just find a way to override Threepio's coding that disables him from translating the stupid dagger for us, we're set." Celestia rubbed her hands together, concocting the plan.

"Cel, Chewie had the dagger!" Finn retorted.

"And? The information is still locked inside Threepio's little hard drive. We just gotta retrieve it. Time's like this I wish I was more into programming than flying. But I hate--" Celestia began.

"Droids. You hate droids." Poe finished for her. She had somewhat of an aversion to the things, she didn't know why but it was certainly something she couldn't shake.

BB-8 chirped angrily at her. "Except you, BB. You know that." She waved him off.

"W-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. Rewind. What did you just say?" Finn shook his head at her brilliant intel. He hadn't thought of it.

"That I like BB-8?"

"No, before that."

"That I hate droids?"

"No! About Threepio and his memory??"

"The information of the dagger is still in his memory." She had said the information so nonchalantly that Finn almost didn't pick it up.

"Is that true, Threepio?" He turned to the golden droid.

"Ah, yes. The inscription only lives in my memory now. But the translation is from forbidden language. It cannot be retrieved." Threepio confirmed.

Finn turned to Celestia. "I ought to kiss you."

"But don't." Poe jutted in.

She winked at him. "With the little help of a little black market coding, we're good to go. Anyone know anybody?"

"I know a black-market droid smith," Poe announced.

Threepio didn't seem to be too on board with the plan. "Black market droid smith?! A memory bypass is a terrible and sinful act performed on unwitting droids by dregs and criminals!" He exclaimed.

"But he's on Kijimi," Poe disregarded Threepio's retortion.

"What's wrong with Kijimi?" Finn inquired.

"I had a little... bad luck on Kijimi. But, if this mission fails, it's all been for nothing. All we've done, all this time." Poe sighed, sadly.

"We're all in this. 'Till the end." Finn looked over at Rey, who was still sinking in her corner as she replayed the moment she killed Chewie.

Solemnly, she stood up and nodded at the boys. "For Chewie."

Celestia had already been on her feet when she reached out her hand to Rey. Rey smiled small at her and held it, feeling comforted by the small act Cel could provide. Finn took Rey and Poe's hands, then Threepio scurried over as Poe was reaching for Celestia. He butted himself in between the two and took Poe and Cel's hand, acting as a link between them. Poe seemed annoyed by the action as he had wanted to touch Cel, causing Cel to quietly chuckle a bit. "Kijimi." Poe pulled his hands away from Finn and the droid and hurried off to the cockpit.

* * *

Soon enough, they took off in Ochi's old ship off the planet toward Kijimi. In the back of the ship, Rey and BB-8 discovered another droid--D-O. A curious little thing, quite frightful as if he had been mistreated before.

Once arriving on Kijimi, Poe tossed an enormous coat over Celestia's body. Who was going to tell them the planet was so cold, Celestia's toes were turning purple. Cel breathed into her cupped hands through clattering teeth. She wasn't used to cold climate, for every time she'd visited a cold place, she was secure in the warmth of her jet.

Poe and Cel were the first to leave the ship, as they were going to scout the place out before allowing the whole crew to unload. The city they were in was infested with First Order officers patrolling and looting all of the buildings in sight. Poe's grip on Cel's arm was tight as he dragged her along the back alleyways to avoid the officers.

As they turned a corner, a hoard of stormtroopers appeared before them. Instinctively, Poe yanked Celestia back behind the corner they came from and held her close to his chest. She didn't mind as she relished in the extra warmth he was providing her in the frigid air. Over his shoulder, she took a peek at what the troopers were doing. They seemed to be intruding people's homes and questioning them. Quite violently. The First Order must have been quite frantic knowing that the Resistance had a lead on them if they were sending out troopers to do such things.

"They're everywhere," Cel whispered to Poe.

Cel's eyes flickered up when she spotted their entire team down the street from them in the same coats they were wearing. She groaned. Poe's eyes followed hers and spotted everyone unloaded from the ship and stalking through the streets toward them. Poe and Cel hurried over to them. "They were coming close to the ship, we had to leave," Finn explained to the two.

"All right, follow me." Poe sighed, knowing that their visibility was much higher with a larger group.

They stopped at a corner and Poe took a look down the alley to make sure it was clear. However, he only looked in one direction before saying "all right, let's head down this way." Then a blaster was pointed to his head.

At the sound of the all too familiar click, Celestia pulled out her own blaster from behind the corner, still invisible to whoever was about to kill Poe. A sudden feeling of dread flooded Celestia. She didn't want to lose Poe. At that moment she realized how much she truly loved him. Because the pang of fear that hit her at that moment was an intense feeling she had never felt before, even when she herself neared death. "Heard you were spotted at Monk's Gate." A woman's voice spoke out, making Celestia turn her fear into anger and jealousy.

Celestia, Finn, and Rey revealed themselves from their hidden corner. Cel pointed her blaster at the woman, her hands shaky and sweaty. "Thought, 'He's not stupid enough to come back here.'"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Poe replied nervously. He clearly had some history with this girl and that wasn't helping Cel's desire to blast her right in her head.

"Who's this?" Rey asked the question they all wanted to know.

"What's going on?" Finn added.

"Guys, uh, this is Zorii, Zorii, this is Celestia, Rey and Finn." Poe spoke rapidly.

"I could pull this trigger right now." She threatened.

Celestia cocked her head and looked at Poe, worriedly. He shook his head at her, telling her not to shoot. She didn't falter her aim, though. "Listen, Zorii, we've got matters to tend to, so if you don't mind... why don't you let the pretty boy go for now, and I'll send him back your way once his purpose has been fulfilled." Celestia offered.

"I wanna see his brains in the snow," Zorii growled.

Poe cautiously removed his hood and turned to look at her straight in the face, through the visor that hid her identity. "Zorii, we could use your help. We gotta crack this droid's head open and fast. We're trying to find Babu Frik."

"Babu? Babu only works with the crew. That's not you anymore." Zorii enlightened him.

Then that's when it clicked in Celestia's head. She was part of the old team where he ran spice, and she was his ex-girlfriend. Celestia lowered her blaster, smirking down at the snow. She had heard stories about her. And from what she had heard, Celestia liked her. Cel knew she wouldn't kill him, she was just hurt that he left her and the crew.  "You were a spice runner?" Finn asked.

"You were a stormtrooper?" Poe insulted him right back.

"Were you a spice runner?" Rey pressed for an answer.

"Were you a scavenger? I can do this all night." Poe spat.

"You don't have all night," Zorii informed him, reminding him that she still had a blaster to his head.

"You know, I'm still digging out of the hole you put me in when you left to join the Resistance. You." Zorii turned to Rey, causing Cel to palm her blaster--she knew she wouldn't kill Poe, but do harm to Rey? She was unsure of. "Youre the one they're looking for. Bounty for her just might cover us." Zorii's voice darkened.

More of Zorii's crew members joined her in pointing their blasters at the group. "Djak'kankah!" She shouted.

Cel waited for the moment to act. Which happened to be when Rey began fighting back with her staff. She knocked a few down and Cel followed pursuit by shooting down Zorii's other comrades. Poe and Finn jumped up in the suddenness of their attack.

Zorii was knocked to the ground by Rey and instantly pulled out her blaster to point at Rey. Rey reacted by lighting up her saber and pointing it at Zorii's throat. Goosebumps covered Cel's body, and this time, it wasn't because of the cold. Rey at that moment held pure power in her stance and unwavering saber pointed at Zorii. Cel could admit she had a little bit of a girl crush on the Jedi.

"We could really use your help. Please." Rey's kindness poured through her words.

"Not that you care," Zorii looked at Rey then at Cel, the only two who reacted when being attacked, "but I think you two are okay."

Rey nodded at her. "We care." Then turned off her saber, taking a step back from Zorii. Cel held out a hand to help Zorii up, forming solidarity between the girls.